What's your Number?
by Cathedra1
Summary: Kuhn has finally made it to 999 phone numbers and is about to make Pi his 1000th. Too bad it was a lot easier to do in his head. Rated for some swears and Kuhn being a pervert. Chapter 8 up.
1. Phone Number

Before we begin this thing:

-Takes place around the end of Reminisce  
- KuhnxPi Ship, because there is not enough of this ship out there D: I thought I should fix that.  
-Rated for some swears and Kuhn being a pervert.  
-These characters and places aren't mine. _CRAP._

Now, ONWARD- 

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Kuhn was in a good mood today. Now, truth be told this wasn't that hard to do. It wasn't like he was Haseo, always scowling and being anti-social, but even for Kuhn, he was in a particularly good mood. The canals of Mac Anu just seemed so beautiful today he thought, as he walked to nowhere in particular.

Perhaps it was the fact that he managed to score three more phone numbers today, meaning he was one step closer to his goal of getting Pi to be his thousandth that caused him to be in this state. There was nowhere to go, currently there wasn't an AIDA crisis or anything Yata would call him on, which meant Kuhn had the day to himself.

Since he had nothing better to do, Kuhn decided to check his phone to see how close he was to his goal. Taking off the M2D, leaving his character frozen on the streets he pulled out his cell phone from his left pocket. He opened up the menu and selected the 'contacts' icon, and looked at the top corner.

It read '1017 contacts'. Kuhn felt his heart stop for a second, and suddenly felt very cold. "Wait, what?" This couldn't be right. He'd actually gone past the 1000 mark? The man started to panic for a minute, but soon he realized that he had contacts that weren't girls. He then selected the 'girls' section of his contacts list and looked up in the right hand corner.

It read 999 contacts.

Kuhn felt about a dozen emotions hit him at once. First, he was relieved that he didn't already surpass past his goal, then he was proud of his accomplishment, he'd actually made it. He was surprised that it happened so fast; he wasn't expecting this for a while. Finally he was going to ask Pi for her phone number!

Oh crap, he's going to ask Pi for her phone number.

He had been planning this out for months, ever since a few weeks after he met her. It worked out so well in his head each time, with her always saying yes and giving him said phone number. But now that the task was finally in front of him, it didn't seem as easy as it was in his head. It would be so simple for her to no, absolutely not and walk off. And it wouldn't be too unlike her either.

She was always getting mad at him, and had this strange timing ability to always be around when he was flirting with other girls. '_Does she plan it out, is she checking on me in the serpent of lore? She always seems to know when I'm hanging out with other girls without fail'._ He thought. She'd even beat him a few times if she got really annoyed.

Although he couldn't blame her, he'd get mad if someone he knew was always hanging out with another of the opposite sex. Truthfully, he was just doing this so he could snag more phone numbers to get to his goal and finally ask for Pi's, though the perks that came with it were nice.

Deciding he shouldn't leave his character standing in the streets of Mac Anu frozen, he put the M2D back on his head, only to be greeted by 4 girls.

"WAH-!" he yelped out seeing that one of the girls was uncomfortably close to his face.

"Kuuu-niee" One said grinning. She was balancing on her tiptoes to get closer to his level.

"Where were you?" Said another, pouting a little.

A hand automatically reached to scratch the back of his head. "I was just going to the bathroom…" He lied.

"You were in there for ages, it doesn't take that long to use the bathroom!" Said the shortest of the group.

Kuhn glanced at his phone. "I was gone for 2 minutes." He replied, still keeping that grin on his face. It wasn't always great having so many girls following him around. Some of them were really ditzy and clingy.

"It felt like an eternityyy." Said the one who was on her tiptoes, in an almost sing-songy manner.

Kuhn continued to wear that smile, laughing softly. Although he loved the company of a woman, he was not in the mood right now; he had to make a plan for obtaining Pi's phone number, and these girls were just a distraction. He wanted to just be alone for the time being.

He bowed down a bit and said, "Girls, it's such a pleasure to be in your presence, but sadly, I have places to be. I deeply regret having to leave you here, but really, I must be going." Kuhn walked slowly leaving the girls where they were, before breaking into a run when he turned the corner. He didn't want to be rude, but this was the only way to be on his own without any girls following him.

Kuhn made his way to a warp point and immediately transported himself into the mercenary district. He figured Raven's HOME would be the quietest place for him to think, so he selected Raven off of the guild menu and entered into the headquarters of G.U..

He was greeted by Pi, who was adjusting the glasses perched on her nose.

"Uh, Pi! Hey there!" His subconsciously began to scratch the back of his head. _Stupid._ Why didn't he just log out? Pi had equal access to the Raven, so why did he think this was the best place to gather his thoughts alone?

"What are you doing here?" She asked, with an eyebrow raised. "Neither Yata nor I called you here, and you never seem to want to come here on your own accord."

Damn, why was she suspicious? Maybe she _was_ spying on him. "Well, I…" He searched for a believable explanation, and said, "I came here on a whim." Wow, that was stupid.

Pi seemed to think over his reason for a second, placing her hands on her hips, and exposing her chest. Kuhn couldn't help his eyes from drifting down, despite the fact it was a PC. He didn't think she could complain, she did create her PC to show that much skin, and to have breasts that large. "Um, alright then." She said, crossing her arms again.

Kuhn looked back at her face, and remembered why he went into Raven at the first place. "Hey Pi…" He began.

"Yes?"

Okay Kuhn, you can do this. You've known her for over half a year, and most of the other girls on your contacts list you've talked to for a day, tops. Just say it. It worked fine in you head, why would she say no?

He took a deep breath, and after what seemed like an eternity he started over, "Hey Pi… would you…" All right, just say it. It's just a phone number, it's not like you're proposing to her. You've done this almost a thousand times with other girls who you barely knew, and this is no different. "Like to level up with me?" Wimp.

Pi's other eyebrow went up, as though she knew that wasn't what he really wanted to say. "Well, there's no AIDA signal or anything. I suppose, I could. It'd be nice to play this like an actual game for once." She uncrossed her arms and walked to the door.

Kuhn's posture seemed to snap up and said "All right!" And rushed past her out into the streets.

Pi sighed and followed him to the Chaos Gate.

"So, uh what kind of dungeons do you like? I don't really have a preference." He said to her. He figured she'd be more inclined to give him her phone number if she were in a dungeon she liked.

"The Temple ones I suppose." She said. "We should go to Dol Donna first, the ones at Mac Anu are too weak."

"Oh, right." He laughed weakly and warped over to Dol Donna, closely followed by Pi. Once they reached the green Root Town he turned to her "So, shall we go?" He said, smiling.

"You need to invite me to your party first." She said, raising her eyebrow yet again.

Kuhn laughed stupidly and invited her to his party. How could he forget such a basic thing? "Okay!" He said with a large smile to cover up his blunders. "Let's go level up now!" and he warped to an area.

Once the dungeon loaded Pi looked over at him. "You're awfully chipper. Any reason you wanted to level up with just me? You usually invite a healer to go along with us." Her character seemed to compliment the orange hues with her red outfit. It reminded him of a day in autumn.

Kuhn yet again moved his arm back to scratch his head. He started to notice how often he was doing this today. "Well, you know. Haseo gave you that scroll so your character knows Repth, and I have plenty of healing items. I figured we'd be fine. It's just a normal area, it's not like we'll die in one hit." Kuhn figured this was a good enough explanation, but before he let Pi question it he headed into the dungeon. Pi quickly followed after.

_Oh come on. You're stalling; the answer won't change by you going through a dungeon. You might as well ask Pi here and now. _Kuhn was fighting an internal battle as he ran along the empty hallways of the temple._Just turn around and- Hey look. Monsters._

Kuhn dashed into the fight, not even thinking to sneak attack.

"KUHN!" She yelled avoiding an attack from a monster. "Why didn't you sneak up on them?" Pi did a back flip in the air dealing a reasonable amount of damage on the monster. "I thought you knew how to play this game."

He didn't answer, but more started at her as she did her acrobatics. Her PC looked phenomenal as she jumped around dealing damage to the monster. Her legs looked flawless and those breasts just seemed to be begging to be stared at. He was interrupted in his observation by one of the monsters hitting him square in the back, and knocking him to the ground. "Gah, What the hell!" He said with his face staring at the floorboards.

He got up and ran to a distance so he could fire at the monster and be out of range. Eventually he defeated it, and the battle ended.

"That was great!" He yelled in triumph and ran up to Pi. "See, that was easy, we don't need a healer."

Pi scoffed. "It would have been easier if you didn't just stand around. What were you doing? You left me to fight them." She threw her hands to her hips, causing her breasts to bounce slightly.

Kuhn was about to bring his arm up the scratch the back of his head when he realized he'd been doing that a lot today, and it was getting a bit tedious. "Sorry, I thought I heard my phone ring." Pervert.

Pi shook her head and gestured for them to continue down in the dungeon.

After a few more successful battles and dead ends they finally got to courtyard in between the two sections of the dungeon.

"Well, we're halfway there." He said with that grin on his face.

Quit stalling. This has gone on long enough. It's a phone number. Just ask her. It's no big deal, it's just like asking for someone's name.

_Although people don't often give out their real name online._

But people have given you their phone number nine hundred ninety nine times. This is just one more.

"Well, are we going to continue?" She said, uncrossing her arms, exposing her point of interest.

He knew that it was a PC body, but he still couldn't keep his eyes from drifting there. They just… stood out, and moved so realistically. And they're so large, why would she make her PC otherwise? The rest of her body was great looking also, she had such a small waist and great legs. He began to wonder if they resembled her in real life also.

"Hey!" She yelled, and crossed her arms again, but Kuhn's eyes continued to look downward. "Are you going to answer me?"

He inwardly hit himself in the face. It's polygons. Stop it.

"Yeah. Sorry about that." He grinned again. "Let's continue." He said adding a :D emote.

Pi raised her eyebrow and adjusted her glasses again. "Emotes? That's childish."

"Well, I'm sorry if I was trying to be friendly." This was a total disaster. If only he had asked her right away. _She's going to hate me by the time I get to the beast statue._ "Anyhow, just standing around isn't going to get us any closer to that treasure."

"I thought you just wanted to level up." She pointed out.

"Well standing around isn't going to help is in that department either. C'mon!" He ran into the second half of the dungeon, still inwardly banging his head against a wall.

They continued to weave their way through the dungeon, hitting every monster they could, and subsequently hitting every dead end.

Kuhn groaned as they hit the 7th dead end. "This is what I hate about these dungeons! I always end up wasting time going to empty rooms."

Pi laughed quietly. Kuhn turned his head around and stared at her. Had she laughed before? He couldn't remember a time when she did. "That's because you have no sense of direction. Don't worry, I don't blame you, it comes with being a man. That's what I love about these areas. You feel so accomplished when you go the right way the first time, which I can do almost every time."

"Then why don't you tell me which way to go?!"

"You're the one who keeps leading me everywhere. Besides, it helps with leveling up if you hit every single monster." After a second she added, "Besides, it's kind of funny."

She was right. _And besides,_ he thought._ It helps me waste time._

"Okay fine. Besides, we can't be too far from the end." He said and turned around.

He really did enjoy being in her company, even though she had a tendency to tease him like that. What first attracted him to her was that PC body though. He'd always had a weakness for pretty girls, and couldn't keep his eyes off hers. Yata made them work together and interact, but he might have just quit G.U. if Pi's PC wasn't the way it was. He admitted that he was a bit shallow. If Pi were a Tu Tribe member or something, he probably wouldn't have contacted her at all besides dealing with Avatar stuff. She wasn't though, she gave her PC a very hot body, and he hung out with her for that. But since then, he just loved being around her, and receiving E-mails from her, even though they were almost always about Yata or CC Corp. Maybe it was because she reminded him of his old girlfriend, and maybe deep down he thought she could replace that hole in his heart.

He continued down the passage, not really paying attention to what was going on, but more lost in his own thoughts. He snapped back to reality when he heard that heavenly music and realized he was at the beast statue.

"Well, it looks like this is it." Said Pi looking at the Gott statue.

Those words made Kuhn realize why he invited her in the first place. _Well, This is it. Just say it._ Kuhn took a deep breath.

"Hey, Pi?" He said, feeling adrenalin pulse through his body. Was he really that worried about her saying no?

"Yeah?" She said, turning around, her arms at her side.

This time Kuhn didn't even think of looking at her body, he was still trying to gather up the guts just to say it. After a few seconds he spoke. "CanIhaveyourphonenumber?" He said in one breath. He let out a sigh of relief; he'd actually said it. Now he just had to wait for an answer.

Pi's eyebrows scrunched together. "What?"

_Oh God, I knew it. She's going to say no, and that I'm an idiot for asking her._ "I-I'm sorry. I just thought that since…" He trailed off, feeling somewhat empty.

"No, what did you say? I couldn't hear a word you said, you're talking too fast." She said, her expression softening a little bit.

Kuhn felt the adrenalin pulse again. "I, uh asked you if I could have your cell phone number." He could feel his heart race and his face get hot. _What the hell. My heart only beats like this if a dog is chasing me or something. I'm just asking someone for a phone number._ "I guess since we've known each other for so long…" He looked at her feet.

"Sure."

Kuhn looked at her face, as a smile crept upon his. "What?" He said.

"I said yes, did you misunderstand me?"

"Oh! No, and thank you!" He felt himself grinning broadly.

"Do you have a pencil with you?" She said, her mouth curved slightly upward as if she was amused by the situation unfolding.

"I have my phone with me. What is it?" Kuhn noticed that his phone, which he had been keeping in his hand, was soaked with sweat.

Pi recited her phone number to him, which he entered into his contacts list, checking to make sure it was the right one twice.

"I'll be sure to call you some time, okay?" He said, his grin broader than it had been in a long time.

"That's fine, I'd enjoy that." She said.

"Thank you very much!" He said loudly, trying to keep himself from yelling out and punching his arm in the air.

Kuhn jogged over to the warp point and returned to the town, and couldn't help himself from laughing loudly.

Pi stood there, still slightly bemused. "You forgot the treasure." She said, also gating out.

Kuhn strolled along the streets of Mac Anu. They'd never looked so beautiful, and he couldn't remember a better mood he'd been in.


	2. The Call

I lied. It's not complete. I hope you still trust me.  
Okay, I wasn't planning on making this any longer than a Oneshot, but since I've gotten fairly positive reviews, I've decided to add to it.

Steeple: Yes, I know XD; I don't think Kuhn does. I'll address that later.  
DarkMira: Well, we'll have to fix that won't we :O  
Akumarayne: I know D: I was very sad that no one writes about my hetero-ship.  
Everyone else: THANK YOU 3

And yet again, notes :3

-Kuhn's real life player is Tomonari Kasumi. I'll be using Tomonari when referring to Kuhn outside of "The World"  
-I seriously don't know how cell phones work, so please forgive me if I make any mistakes. I've never owned one.  
-This will make a lot more sense if you've watched Liminality. If you don't own it you're lame, er, should watch them on youtube.  
-I've heard it said many times that Mai is dead. I'm going with that in the story. (See bullet point above if you're confused)  
-I'm basing the conversation etiquette from my experience with talking to people I met online. It's really funny how timid we are.

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_Subj: Pi_

_To: Haseo_

_Sender: Kuhn_

_Hey Haseo. I'm sure you probably don't care or anything, but I needed to tell someone. You remember a while back that I told you I was going to make get Pi's number as my 1000__th__ girls? Well I finally did it. :D She didn't even beat me or anything._

_Anyways, like I said you probably don't care. Oh well :)_

Tomonari, a man in his mid-twenties had gotten off work for the day and entered his apartment. After eating a cup of instant curry, he decided to get in his room and access his computer. Earlier that day he had sent an e-mail to one of his online friends, and was going to check for a reply before going any further in his day. When the desktop finally loaded he clicked the mail button.

_Subj: Re: Pi_

_To: Kuhn_

_Sender: Haseo_

_That's great, Kuhn! I knew you two would get together._

-

Tomonari looked at his E-mail and frantically hit the reply button. He didn't want Haseo to think that they were dating or anything. It was just a phone number, nothing more. If Pi thought he was telling everyone he knew that they were madly in love, she might just get Yata do delete his account.

"But she probably couldn't, I'm an epitaph user." He said to himself. "Yata would never allow it."

But that wasn't the point. He really didn't want Pi to be pissed at him, especially since she seemed to be in a good mood for once. So, Tomonari typed out a reply.

_Subj: Re: Together_

_To: Haseo_

_From: Kuhn_

_You seem to misunderstand me. I never said we were dating or anything. I just got her phone number. Nothing more, nothing less. I haven't even called her yet; so don't be getting any ideas._

After sending the e-mail Tomonari realized how incredibly cold it sounded. He didn't want Haseo to be pissed at him either; the boy had enough things to be pissed about as it was. Deciding it would be weird sending another e-mail he decided to log in and explain the situation to Haseo in person, or as close as he could get.

Tomonari placed the M2D on his head and entered his password, _Mai Minase,_ which he had been using for over 7 years. He knew that it was just asking for him to be hacked, but it felt wrong to use anything else. The landscape of Mac Anu faded into sight around him, and Tomonari was fully transformed into Kuhn.

Kuhn opened up the party list to see if Haseo was online, and try to catch him at the warp point of a root town to try and clear up any misconceptions about either of his e-mails.

Unfortunately, Haseo wasn't. Which was odd, because the boy was almost always online.

However, Pi was online. Like Kuhn had said in his E-mail, he hadn't even tried to call her yet. Sure, he'd sat staring at his phone trying to get himself to press the call button, but he had never actually pressed it. Before he got that far Kuhn always convinced himself that he'd be inconveniencing her, or calling in the middle of her work. And he_really_ didn't want her to have any reason to get mad at him. But, since she was spending time on "The World", it meant that she was open for conversation.

Knowing it was and incredibly short session, Kuhn quickly logged out to avoid any fangirls, and removed the M2D from his head. Becoming Tomonari once more, he picked up his cell phone, which was lying near one of his speakers and brought up the 'contacts' menu. On the top of the list was Pi's number.

Hesitantly, he selected it, and looked at the screen that had her name and number. It asked him if he wanted to call her, and after what seemed like an eternity he pressed the call button.

Almost immediately he regretted it. What if it was the wrong number, what if she really was still in work (She had a job in CCcorp right? Wouldn't that mean that she could be on The World _and_ at work?) and he was getting her in trouble. As all of these thoughts attacked his brain at once, he was interrupted by a female voice.

"Hello?"

Tomonari felt his heart stop, again wondering why his body was reacting in such a way. It was only a phone call. "Uh, Hello. Er, Pi?"

There was a pause. "Uh, yeah. Is this…?" Said the voice on the other line.

Tomonari stuttered his next sentence, "This is, ah, Kuhn." He said timidly. "Is this Pi?"

"I just said it was."

"Oh, great! I didn't get the wrong number."

"Well, you checked about 3 times with me. Unless I was giving you someone else's, it would have been pretty hard to get wrong."

Tomonari laughed weakly. "Well, you know. It would have been fairly awkward calling someone I don't know and introducing myself with our aliases. How would you react if someone called you asking for Butt-rice?"

After a moment she replied, "Who would name their character Butt-rice?"

"Ahah. Sorry. Forget it." There were a few seconds of dead silence. He really didn't have anything to talk about, but he didn't want to hang up. "You're voice sounds a bit different." He said, desperately trying to carry a conversation.

"I'm not using a voice modifier, it's exactly the same online and off."

Tomonari found himself shrugging and making other gestures, even though it was just a phone call, and she couldn't see him. "Well, you know maybe it's the mic or my M2D or something."

"Or maybe it's because you aren't distracted."

"Yeah… wait, what do you mean by that?"

He could hear her scoff on the other line. "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. I know you're always ogling at my character."

"What?" Had it really been that obvious? "I think it's my headphones. Either that or this phone makes people sound weird." He said, trying to change the subject.

There was another period of dead silence, which Tomonari didn't want to break. What was up with her? Was she PMSing or something?

"Why did you ask me for my phone number, just wondering." She said calmly after a while.

"Well, I like you. I wanted to be able to talk to my friends on places other than the world. Besides, you said that you wanted to get a phone call from me." He said, sounding fairly defensive.

She sighed and said, "You're right, I'm sorry. It's just, the way you get sometimes…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You never seem to think about anything other than girls," She explained. "And you don't do anything besides hanging out with them, or flirt with them."

"Well sorry, they're always so nice." Then he added, "I was just being polite."

"They don't seem to think you were 'just being polite'. I've seen you ask for their phone numbers numerous times, how many do you have? A hundred?"

She _was_ spying on him. "I have a bit more than that…" He said, regretting that. Why was she so pissed all of a sudden?

"Oh, I see." She spoke calmly but he could hear the venom in her voice. "Just adding me to your collection. Although I suppose I'm not exactly on the V.I.P. list."

Tomonari was totally at a loss. "Wha-?"

"I've seen you. There are theses girls who you spend about an hour with and you ask their number right away. I've known you for over 6 months, and you've never asked me anything of the sort until yesterday. Am I really that repulsive to you?"

Tomonari groaned in exasperation. "No!" He said loudly.

"I suppose you decided to even show some kindness to me just because of my PC's boobs."

"Well, they're kind of hard to ignore!" He said harshly. "If you didn't want anyone to look at that then you shouldn't have made yourself look that way! Don't be blaming me for something you did!"

There was another dead silence. Tomonari was breathing hard, hating himself for what he had just said. "Look, I'm-" He began.

"No, it's fine." She said shortly. "Go call one of the other hundreds of girls you have on your phone, you pervert." And she hung up.

"I only got theirs so I could ask you for yours!" He yelled into the phone, though there wasn't anyone on the other side.

"_FUCK_!" He threw his phone at the wall as hard as he could, making a very loud_ clack _when it made contact and it fell to the ground. He threw his hands up to his face and pressed his palms into his eyes while his fingers scratched in-between the hair on the top of his head.

As he felt tears sting the corner of his eyes he fell back on his bed and cried out, "I just want to be with you! Why do you hate me so much?"

_Whatever. If she hates me that much, then she can go burn in hell for all I care._

_--- _

The end :D

I lie, I'm sorry. I'll try to make the next chapter longer.


	3. Shell Breaker

You may be noticing that I don't use keywords. The reason? MY PLAYSTATION2 IS AT COLLEGE with my brother ;;

Also, please don't murder me. I'd like to live thnx vrymuch. I promise the angst will go down a lot after this chapter.

-----

Kuhn had nothing to do. He didn't want to deal with people right now, and the world didn't have much of an entertainment aspect otherwise. Training was fairly satisfying though. Ever time that he sliced or shot one of those monsters it helped vent some of his frustration.

"WHAT THE HELL." He yelled out kicking the shell of a carrie. He was still irritated about last night. He continued to kick the shell of the carrie, not being able to break the shell. Usually he was much more laid back, being a lot less violent in destroying the monster, but today was an exception.

Why would she attack him like that? He hadn't done anything to piss her off from between getting her number and calling her. And was she watching on him? Did she really hate him enough to try to get some leverage against him through spying? He wished he could understand what she was thinking so he could properly apologize for whatever he'd done.

But, she was so stubborn she'd probably just yell at him even more. _Honestly_. Why was she so predisposed to blame him for everything? He didn't want her to be so angry at him, and was regretful of what he'd thought after their conversation yesterday, but still.

After about a minute of kicking the monster, its shell finally broke and he began to shoot at the soft body. Following many cries sounding similar to "WRRRYYY" he managed to destroy the monster. The battle had ended and he gained a few experience points, but was no closer to calming down or understanding Pi. The battle had just served to stress him out more.

Before he opened up the treasure chest the monsters were guarding he got a flash mail. Haseo was inviting him to his party. He'd forgotten that he had to clear any false impressions the boy had gotten from his past e-mails, and sent him a reply saying he'd be right over.

Kuhn warped from the area to meet Haseo at Mac Anu's chaos gate. Haseo was being his normal moody self, his arms crossed over his heavily spiked body. Upon seeing the gunner he smiled slightly.

"Haseo, about my e-mail. I didn't mean to sound…" Kuhn began.

Haseo interrupted waving his hand, "It's alright. Whatever you say, Kuhn. Anyways Yata's calling us. Let's go to the mercenary district and enter Raven's HOME." He ran ahead outside of the dome towards one of the warp points, with Kuhn following shortly behind.

Upon entering guild he spotted Haseo standing near the Serpent of Lore. "Are you coming?" He said with his arms crossed.

Kuhn wasn't too keen on seeing Yata, the man annoyed him a lot, but he didn't see any point in standing still. He followed Haseo into the back room.

On the other side of the hallway he met Pi.

She turned around to see who had entered the room and her expression darkened when she saw him. She turned away looking ahead to the front of the room, waiting for Yata to come and give them their instructions, and deliberately avoiding his eye contact. Kuhn was going to say something to her, but he didn't want to give Haseo any hint to what had happened. So he just followed Pi's lead and waited for Yata to come down.

Right on cue, the man did, lowering on that lotus flower much like he did when he first met Haseo. "Hello." He said in that rumbling voice. "Let's make this short. There's a faint AIDA detected in an area that I'd like you to check out. Though it's faint, I would still like you to take along epitaph users with you, Haseo. Please take Pi and Kuhn along with you, and report back once you're done."

Haseo nodded in reply and left the room towards the chaos gate. Pi followed closely behind while Kuhn kept his distance, feeling it'd be best not to talk to her this soon, and let her sort it out herself.

Haseo still seemed to think that they were dating, because he kept smiling uncharacteristically towards them, despite the fact that they were avoiding each other's eyes. Kuhn noticed how Pi kept her arms crossed above her breasts, and assumed she was dong that just to spite him.

"Alright you two, let's check out this AIDA signal." And he warped to the area, with Kuhn and Pi warping as well.

They ended up in a night field. "The AIDA signal seems to be up ahead." Declared Pi. "Let's get this over with." She said, shooting a glance at Kuhn. She ran as far off from the two men as she could, but still be close enough so she could easily reach them if they ended up in a battle or anything.

"Holy crap, Kuhn. What did you do to piss her off already?" Said Haseo.

Kuhn jumped a little. "What do you mean?"

"Well, You've had her phone number for less than a week, and she's already avoiding you." He said, indicating the woman marching along in front of the two.

"I didn't do anything." He said exasperatedly. "I just called her."

"Well it doesn't seem like you didn't do- _shit._" The battle music started, a gang of chickies had ambushed them.

Pi seemed surprised, as she had just ran into the edge of a battle area, also not noticing a battle had started. She quickly turned around and started to battle one of the chickies.

Kuhn was standing back, shooting them in the air. One of the perks of being a steam gunner was that he didn't have to wait for the monster to swoop down on you before you got to attack it. He was trying to shoot down the one hovering slightly above Pi, hoping it would help get him on her good side, but his controller slipped and he targeted Pi instead.

The attack made contact in her back, causing a fair bit of damage to her health. Silently praying that she hadn't seen him make the attack, and cursing CCcorp for making 'friendly fire' doable in the world, he continued to attack another monster, acting like nothing had happened.

The battle had ended, but Pi still kept her gauntlets equipped. She swiftly walked over to Kuhn and attacked him harshly, taking about 150 points from his health. "Just returning the favor." She said calmly, and returned to walking about 15 feet ahead of the group.

"Okay, whatever you did, nice going." Said Haseo, following her.

"Look, I didn't do anything. Can you tell her-"

"Keep me out of this." He said shortly. "I don't want to be caught up in your love affair."

Kuhn's face turned slightly red. "Don't say that! I just wanted to get her phone number, and when I finally called her she went berserk on me!"

"Whatever." He said. "You and women..." He said slightly shaking his head.

"What about them?" Said Pi up ahead.

Haseo and Kuhn looked at her. "Eh?" Said Haseo stupidly, his face still trying to keep a scowl on it.

"Kuhn and women. What about them? The fact that he can't keep his eyes off anything below the shoulders, or the fact that he is incredibly shallow?" She said angrily. "Who did he call up after our conversation? That third grader? Or did you just e-mail you, telling you about how much of a bitch I am?"

"Well that's true." Said Haseo, crossing his arms.

Pi's expression darkened, if possible, but she kept staring at Kuhn, even though her words were directed towards Haseo.

"I suppose he called someone with a much prettier PC. I guess it wouldn't be hard to find her, seeing how he has about a hundred of them his phone."

"More like a thousand." Commented Haseo, looking irritated.

Pi was starting to look absolutely livid, while Kuhn was standing there at a loss. Maybe she was PMSing; she's going through some powerful mood-swings.

'_I guess you couldn't call it a mood swing, seeing how she's staying angry the whole time_.' He thought dryly.

"Pi, it's not anything like that at all. I didn't mean to shoot you, and Haseo, tell her what I've been e-mailing you about."

Haseo straightened up and closed his eyes. "You can tell her yourself. I don't want to be caught up in your fight stuck in the middle. It'd really piss me off. Have fun getting that AIDA." He said bluntly, and he logged out.

Kuhn turned to Pi. "Before _you_ leave, please just let me talk to you." He said desperately.

Pi snorted similar in a similar way to a bull. "I'm not leaving. Unlike that boy back there, when I'm given an assignment, I stick to it. You can feel free to leave know, knowing how much you detest my company." She continued to walk through the field towards where the AIDA signal was originating.

"Stop that!" He yelled, trotting after her. "I don't hate you! Where did you get that idea?" He asked.

"Well, seeing that you seem to prefer people that you hardly know over me. And that phone call didn't exactly say 'I love you'." She said bitterly. Kuhn cringed thinking about what he'd said to her. "What's the real reason you asked me for my number? Were you trying to make some sort of goal?"

"Well, you seemed pretty eager to give it to me."

"That's because I thought you asked me because you'd changed!" She said, slowing down. "I thought that you actually wanted to talk to me…" She added quietly.

Kuhn's thoughts stopped racing for a moment._ 'Wait… did she-? Does this mean…'_His eyes widened.

"But, apparently I was wrong." She said promptly, increasing her pace again, the AIDA within sight. "I was just another addition to you collection, probably just trying to get you to a goal. So what are you trying to get? A thousand numbers? No, wait you've already got that. 1337 numbers?" She said viciously, her voice cracking a bit.

A mist of black orbs was in front of the two, pulsating menacingly. He wasn't focusing on that though.

Kuhn breathed in deeply "The goal," He began, and there was a tone. His avatar pattern began to glow around his body, and the field around them began to disappear, turning into a landscape similar to space. "Was you." He added finally, and his Avatar appeared.

The AIDA also took a form, similar to a seed with a tail and leaves coming out of the top. The seed was flying back and forth, and its tail was flitting dangerously. This was one of its weakest forms, so Kuhn wasn't intimidated at all.

With one beam from Magus, the entity's protection barrier had broken, and with almost no difficulty at all, he charged his data drain and hit the AIDA. It shifted around as the data was collected into Magus's arm. It vanished, and he became Kuhn once more.

"You… were trying to get my phone number all this time?" She said slowly.

Kuhn brushed off his arms, still trying to get rid of the feeling of actually feeling. When he summoned Magus, their bond was strong enough that he could feel all that he was doing. "Yes," he said panting slightly.

"It that's true, then why didn't you just ask me?"

Kuhn brought his hand up to the back of his hair and began to scratch. Even though it was a nervous habit, it felt good. "Um, well..." he began awkwardly. He didn't want her to know right now. "I... well wanted it to be special, you know? We've known each other so long, I didn't think it'd be right getting you to be just some random phone number… I wanted you to be my thousandth one." He said adding a weak laugh at the end.

Pi furrowed her eyebrows slightly, as if she was trying to comprehend everything he'd said. "So… you were asking all of those girls so you could ask for mine..? Am I getting this correct?"

Kuhn felt his face become warm. "Uh…" He said, still scratching the back of his head, and he was now looking down at Pi's shoes. "Yeah." He said grinning and shrugging his shoulders. "Don't try to understand it, I don't really get it myself." He added.

"Why did you shoot me then?"

Kuhn placed his palm on his forehead. "I was trying to be nice. I don't want you to hate me."

"So you shot me?"

He groaned, "I was trying to get that monster you were fighting, but the controller slipped! It's not my fault CCcorp allows people to PK in their own party."

She seemed to accept his explanation. "And you don't think that I'm irritating to be around?" She asked.

"Well, when you're accusing me of things that I didn't do you get irritating… but I really do like being in your company." He told her, grinning slightly. "We should report back to Yata." He said jogging towards the warp point.

Walking side by side, they went through the streets of Mac Anu over to the guild. Once inside, Pi walked up to Yata.

"We took care of the AIDA." Said Pi. "Haseo left early because he had something to attend to, but Magus took care of it easily." She bowed slightly to show respect.

"Thank you, Pi." He responded. "The mission worked out exactly as planned." And he returned to watching the screens that were activated in the Serpent of Lore.

"Alright then, see you later" Said Kuhn, waving at the man and being his normal cheerful self, which he hadn't been in a while. He exited the guild with Pi.

"And, you're sure you aren't just hanging out with me because my PC has these?" She said indicating her breasts.

"Well, maybe when I first met you, but not anymore, really. But, they are an extra little bonus." He said chuckling.

She raised her eyebrow as her lips curved slightly upward. "Pervert."

---

There shall be more :D


	4. Tomonari

A/N: I think this entire chapter takes place offline. I'm getting my facts off .Hack// wikia.

I hope they get more fun to write later.

-------

Tomonari's pocket began to shake uncontrollably. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the source of the movement. He looked at the screen and it reported that Pi was the one who was calling him.

During the past week, ever since that battle with the AIDA, Kuhn had been calling Pi on a daily basis. At first, he premeditated each call, looking at her number on the screen and having his thumb hover over the call button. He played out the phone call in his head each time, trying to guess what she'd say to him and how he'd reply, worried that he'd get a repeat of their first conversation. But, after the first few calls he became more and more confident, and was now down to staring at the screen for a minute before he pressed 'call'.

But she'd never called him before. Until today, that was. After glancing at the screen he scanned the room for people. He loved talking to her; it's just that there was the slight problem that he was in the middle of work.

Since no one was around, he ducked behind the counter and flipped his phone open.

"Hello, Pi!" he said, enthusiastically but quietly.

Every phone call he'd had so far he'd learn tidbits about Pi offline. For instance, he learned that despite her uptight attitude on the world, she was a lot looser. Now, this wasn't saying that she was happy-go-lucky, but without trying to impress Yata or intimidate Haseo, she actually made jokes and laughed at Tomonari's lame ones.

"Hey there, Kuhn. Erm, are you sick or something?" Replied the voice on the other end.

Tomonari poked his head above the counter. The coast was still clear. "Eh?" he said stupidly. He was too worried about being caught on the phone during work to be fully paying attention. It took him a second to fully comprehend what she had just said. "Uh, no, why?"

"Well your voice sounds dead, like you've been yelling a lot or something." She explained. "Have you been summoning your avatar like Haseo does lately?"

Tomonari slowly stood up, still only paying half-attention to Pi, and almost missing her joke. After it sunk it though, he laughed. Slowly at first but then it grew into some odd broken up guffawing.

"Er, it wasn't that funny." She said slowly.

Kuhn calmed down. "No, no. It's just I don't want to get caught."

"Er…" He could hear the confusion in Pi's voice. "Not sure if I want to ask… but caught doing what?" The confusion had turned into slight disgust.

It took Kuhn a second to get what she thought he was implying. "Ah, no! Get your head out of the gutter!" He yelled, feeling himself blush furiously. "I'm in the middle of work!" He said, returning his voice to a whisper, hoping nobody was in the vicinity. "I don't exactly think I'll get promoted for talking on the phone when I should be watching customers."

"Where do you work?" She asked.

"Er… a video game place. Look, it's not that I don't want to talk to you, I really do, but can we continue this once work is over?" He said scratching the back of his head, even though no one could see him.

"Alright, Tomonari."

"Okay… _Wait._ How do you know-" Did she actually just call him by his first name? Had he let it slip at one point? He'd never told _anyone_ online, in fact the only time he'd actually typed his name was when he was signing up for The World. "Are you hacking CC's personal documents? Isn't that against the corporation's policy?! That's no fair!" He said slightly flustered. He was planning to give her his name ceremoniously, not having her just know it like it was common knowledge.

"It's on your name tag."

He stopped for a second. "Shit! You can see me?" He started to muss up his short brown hair and searched the room. He saw through the window that there was a fairly large middle-aged woman on the other end on a cell phone. He felt his stomach sink. He didn't want to be shallow, but oh dear. "Uh… is that you with the ponytail out front?" He said slowly, hoping to God she'd say no.

The woman turned her head and looked inside. Tomonari felt slightly sick.

Pi burst out laughing, but the woman outside of the glass continued to hold a straight face.

"Oh thank God." He muttered.

"I don't see you. And I didn't look through your personal files. I'm not a stalker like that. But, whenever you call me it says 'Tomonari Kasumi' on the screen. It's not that hard to figure it out."

Well, Tomonari felt really stupid right about now. Couldn't he have just changed the settings so it said his name was Kuhn? But, if his read as Tomonari… perhaps Pi's would have her real name? He whipped the phone away from his ear and checked the screen. It still read Pi, and just Pi. "I guess I should have changed it so it hid my real name?" he said, laughing weakly.

"Perhaps." She said slyly. "And it also has to do with the fact that you called me before I added you to my call list. I'm assuming yours has Pi as my name? If you'd left the name blank it would have filled in mine the first time you called me."

Tomonari made a mental note of that, internally bashing his head on the counter.

He saw someone entering the arcade. "I'm sorry! I have a customer bye!" He said quickly and stuffed the cell phone in his pocket, without giving her a chance to respond. Tomonari then turned his attention to the pasty-looking teenager who had entered the arcade. "Hello! How may I help you?"

After what seemed like hours of absolutely nothing going on, Tomonari finally made it through the day and left for his house. He entered his apartment and flipped on the lights. He was about to go grab something to eat out of the refrigerator, when he remembered that he'd told Pi that he would call her back.

Stupid, how could he forget something like that? He pulled the phone out of his pocket and called her, this time not staring at the screen premeditating at all.

There were a few rings and then he heard that familiar voice greet him. "Hello Tomonari."

He exhaled into the phone. "Stop that."

"Oh come on, it's your real name, why shouldn't I call you by it?" She said laughing slightly.

"C'mon," He said lightly, "if you're going to use my name in our phone conversations, then you have to tell me yours!" He said, hoping this would work.

"Nope."

"What? Come on, that's not fair!" He said playfully, but he was still annoyed. She'd been so agreeable over the last week or so, giving him her number, accepting his reasons for asking her in the first place… and now she goes 'no' on such a trivial thing. '_If it's so trivial then why are you so desperate for it?'_ A voice in the back of his head chimed in.

"Which represents a person more, a name that was bestowed upon them when they were too young to make any decisions for themselves, or a name that they came up with in sound mind?" She said smartly, as if she was quoting something. "I prefer the latter. If people were to go by that rule more often, we could learn a lot about someone just by their name."

"Well, then why do you call me Tomonari if you think we should be using the names we made up for ourselves?"

There was a pause. "Because your reaction is so funny."

"Stop it." He said whining a little.

"Tomotomo…"

'_Okay, what sort of crack is she on. I've never seen her like this before, especially when we talked on the world._' He thought to himself.

"Hey!" She interrupted herself. "Who did you think was me?"

Tomonari stared blankly into space. "…What?"

"At your work." She clarified.

"There was this woman outside on her cell phone, by the way, try to make sure I'm not at work when you call me in the future."

He'd never called her in a time when she wasn't busy. The first couple of times he checked to see if she was on the world before he called her, making sure that she wasn't doing something important. After that he got an idea of what her schedule was, and was able to predict when she'd be available and when she'd be occupied with something else. She probably hadn't noticed, but he took careful planning into every move he made. It was like choosing where to go in a maze, you try to make sure you take the correct turn so you don't end up at a dead end and have to start over. He didn't want to ruin his time with Pi, at all.

"Sorry. I just thought you were free all the time since you were always able to catch me at a good time." She said. "By the way, job? How old are you then?"

"Uh, twenty-four. I'm assistant manager at an arcade, but since we…" he trailed off, remembering that she had some big CCCorp job, that would make him look like a idiot, having such a low end job. '_At least I don't work at a fast-food joint…'_ he thought grimly.

"What are the chances?" She said.

Tomonari made a puzzled noise.

"Same age as me." She said.

Tomonari found himself smiling like an idiot in real life. They were not only similar in age, but they were the _same_ age. He would have felt nasty if she'd turned out to be a small child in real life, or some old woman.

"Well I'm glad," he said eagerly. "The lady hanging out in front of the shop was middle-aged or something." He started to chuckle.

"The way you sounded she must have been ancient or something. Or were you really that freaked out about seeing me in real life?" She asked him.

"Well I've never actually seen anyone in real life that I've met online. I mean, I've met people in real life and then online, but never vice-versa. Hold on." His stomach started to grumble and he took out some bread and shoved it in his mouth so he didn't make some weird groaning noises while on the phone with her. "Mmkay." He said with the bread wedged in between his teeth and cheek.

"Yeah, I suppose not. Remember a while ago when we were kids and everyone freaked out about online rapists or murderers? I suppose it's for your own good that no one has wanted to meet with you offline." She said, matter-of-factly. "I've only met one person offline who I met online first."

Tomonari swallowed that piece of bread, and managed to say, "Who?"

"Yata." She said dismissively.

"Ah." He said nonchalantly. He should have known. He always talked to her, and she always talked to him like they knew each other. Were they really more than just a leader and subordinate? "So how is he like?" He said, trying to get his answer without being too obvious where he was going.

"He's… not at all as you would expect." She said slowly. "I mean, when you think of Yata in real life, you'd expect some wise old man in his 30s or older, right?"

"Well, he acts like it."

"When I first met him, I actually made him prove that he was Yata. I couldn't believe that he was actually only 17 years old." She said chuckling feebly. "Who would've guessed…" She added.

"_Seventeen?"_ Kuhn whispered incredulously. " Are you serious?"

"Yes, I am."

Kuhn felt his heart leap. If there was that much of an age difference, then that means that they _definitely _aren't dating, unless Pi was into younger men or something.

"It wasn't that difficult to meet really, seeing how we live close to each other and all." She said. "I probably wouldn't have met him if he lived in Osaka or something."

The truth was is that in the past, Tomonari never really wanted to meet anyone he met online offline. They were pleasant enough to talk to online, but that was always enough, he didn't need to see their actual face. But, even since he got to knew Pi, he just wanted to know more about here, and she was the only person who he'd actually…

"Want to meet in real life?"

"Hm?"

He didn't realize that he'd actually said it out loud, until Pi responded. He meant to keep it in his head. He started to laugh loudly and unconvincingly. "Did I say that out loud?" He said still being at a higher value then necessary.

"Where do you live?" She asked, ignoring the fact that sounded unbelievably embarrassed.

"Er." He stuttered, his face the shade of crimson. "I-I live right next to Kanazawa." He muttered.

"Oh." She said halfheartedly. "I live in Tokyo here."

Tomonari dropped his head on the desk. '_Shit.'_ He thought '_Damn, damn, damn. I knew it. Always something._'

"I see." He said quietly. Kanazawa was over three hours away from Tokyo, assuming there wasn't traffic. She wouldn't waste an entire day just to meet up with him, not to mention the price of Gas. She'd just said that she wouldn't have met Yata if he lived in Osaka, and they had known each other much longer than Pi and Kuhn had. And he couldn't drive all the way there. Tomonari only had a small motorcylish thing, which wasn't very good for far distance travel.

"That's great!" She said, talking brightly again. "There's a restaurant there which I've read about, and I've never had an excuse to go that far until now."

"You do realize that it's quite a drive, right?" He said, trying to be practical.

"No problem, I love driving. I never get a chance to take my Maserati for a spin, so this is the perfect opportunity. I can walk to my work in 10 minutes, so it's pretty useless to be sitting in a car for 2 minutes." She said eagerly. "Do you have work off tomorrow?"

"Uh… yeah. I'm free." He said vacantly. Was this really happening?

"That works then." She said curtly.

Tomonari was in a daze as she gave him instructions, like where it was and when to be there. Acting like it was some carefully planned out business interview, she told him the menu and gave suggestions, but Tomonari was blankly replying with "Yes" and "Alright" every time she paused. It was still taking a while to sink in.

After all of the instructions were given she said, "I'll see you then, Tomonari." And then she hung up.

After putting the phone away, his face still dazed Tomonari punched a fist into the air and shouted loudly in happiness. "YES!"

He put the bread away, and began to get ready to get to bed. Instead of unenthusiastically getting ready like he usually did, he paid extra attention to cleanliness today. He took an extra long shower, and washed his hair about 3 times more than he should have, and even did unnecessary insignificant details like cleaning out his toenails.

"I'm actually going to meet Pi." He said out loud. He had to make sure it was real by saying it; it just seemed to good to be true. "In real life." He added.

Tomonari went to bed early that night, but couldn't get to sleep. His mind was racing with thoughts and plans for the next day. Would he be able to tell it was her? What if he got sick? What should he wear, and what would they talk about?

After thinking intently about it for an hour, he finally started to get tired, and before he fell unconscious he wondered out loud, "Me. Meeting Pi. I wonder what she looks like…"


	5. Name

A/N. Okay, now here comes the part where I'm fairly uninformed. A little back-story on what I've been researching for this story. Researching. For a fanfiction. Okie dokie anyhow…

Kanazawa is around 300 miles (Bike race information is where I found this out, I'm guessing that involves curves and stuff, and the race was through the mountains, so I'm rounding it down to 260ish) from Tokyo. Japan has a pretty good train system (I've heard this a few times) and is_relatively_ close to Tokyo. They are essentially on the other side of the island from each other, but the shortest possible distance away and still being on the other side of the island... if you get what I mean. Like… Instead of being 'I' apart they're '–' apart. Oh, I'm excellent at explaining things. It's fairly hard to write about a place where you don't live, so I'm going to be very vague on time issues and miles away etc.

Slight spoilers for Reminisce.

That was long. Onto the story.

Oh by the way, why did it take so long for this chapter? A few reasons.

I'm lazy.  
I'm in honors classes; therefore I'm piled with homework.  
I'm really lazy.  
This was hard to write.  
Procrastination.  
-------

Tomonari got up early that day. Which was weird, because most days he slept in, and when he woke up he was still tired. But, today he just felt like he'd drank some sort of energy drink, and wanted to get the day going already.

Despite him taking a shower the previous night, Tomonari decided to take a shower, and yet again and repeated the unnecessary tasks. After he was sure that he was as clean as he was going to get, he got out of the shower and studied himself in the mirror.

"Hmph." He breathed and ruffled his wet hair. It was better, but not good enough. He rapidly shook his head and began to mess with it again. After doing this about ten more times he finally gave up, convincing himself that it looked fine. He noticed that his chin seemed a bit rough, so he decided to shave, even though normally he'd have left it alone.

After cleaning himself up to the point that it was almost ridiculous, he was returned to his room to look through his wardrobe. He searched desperately for something fancy, when he realized that he didn't know the dress code of the place. Still in just a bathrobe, he made his way to the computer to check the restaurant's web site.

After scrolling about the website he found the page that had the dress code. It had one sentence that just said 'dress casually'.

Well that was lucky, seeing how Tomonari didn't actually own a suit, or anything particularly fancy. He returned to his closet and pulled out the general outfit. A long sleeved dark shirt and a blank T-shirt to put over it. He studied the mirror, in a similar fashion to a girl, straightening out his shirt, checking his fly, and mussing up his hair another time.

After he felt that ten minutes was far to long for any self-respecting man to stand in front of the mirror, he left the room to check the clock.

He'd be meeting Pi in the evening, meaning he had around 7 hours to kill, give or take. He'd have to walk to the train station, and also to the restaurant, so he had to leave with plenty of time to spare. He also wanted to beat Pi as to not leave a bad impression.

After eating breakfast, he had around 6 hours and 49 minutes to kill, give or take.

"Oh." He said, realizing what he could do to kill time. He walked over to his computer, which was still on with the restaurant's website on the monitor. He clicked out of it and selected 'The World'. Once it began loading, he placed the M2D over his eyes, and entered the game.

Kuhn appeared at Dol Donna, his blue hair whipping around his body as he looked around. Seeing no one of interest, he continued further into the Root Town.

"Hey, Kuhn!" Said a familiar voice. He spotted Silabus standing near a guild shop, with Gaspard behind the counter, and sped up his pace to meet them there. Gaspard looked over to see whom his friend was calling and his face brightened up.

"Hey, you two." He said once he reached the counter. "How's it going?"

"Fine," replied the brunette brightly. "We haven't seen you in forever, Kuhn."

"Yeah, maybe it's because we've been watching the guild shop? Has Haseo been taking you on a lot of quests?" Said the beast character. "He doesn't invite me too often because I have to watch the shop…"

"No." He said, and hoisted himself on the counter to sit down. "I've been busy in the real world lately… you know?" He'd been spending most of his free time on the phone, and the rest of it at work or sleeping. Besides, he'd been avoiding the world lately after the incident with Moon Tree.

"I suppose so. Studies have been keeping me offline for a bit, so Gaspard's been lonely lately." Said Silabus, looking at Gaspard.

"That's not true!" He piped up. "I haven't been around my friends, but that doesn't mean that I'm lonely! That's what's great about running the shop! I get to meet so many people." He said smiling.

Kuhn grinned in response, and leaned back, with his weight on his hands. "Since you two don't seem to have anything to do, do you want to go on an adventure with me?" It'd be hard to kill time just by talking.

The two stared at him, as if they were watching a dog and waiting for it to do a trick. Kuhn sat there blankly, wondering what was wrong. "You two o-"

"I don't believe it." Said Silabus, looking amused.

Gaspard started to do that chirpy little giggle of his. Kuhn was utterly bewildered. "W- what?"

"I never thought I'd see the day…" Silabus said, confusing Kuhn even further.

Gaspard apparently couldn't keep the secret to himself and cried out, "You're cured!" And he threw his hands into the air.

This didn't help clarify things, was he sick before or something…?

Silabus seemed to notice Kuhn's confusion and added, "Your illness."

Kuhn turned around and saw a band of girls had walked by the guild shop. He'd forgotten that Silabus and Gaspard gave a name to his infatuation with girls since he hadn't been in the guild for over half a year. "I wouldn't say cured…" He said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Has work been keeping you down or something, Kuhn? Normally you would have been all over those ladies." Silabus said, still looking cheerful as ever.

Gaspard's cheerful face dimmed a bit and he said uncertainly, "You're right. Maybe he is actually sick or something."

Silabus patted Gaspard on the head. "I don't think he's ill. Perhaps…" he paused for a second. "His attention is on someone else."

Gaspard brightened. "Really?" He started that shrill giggle again. "That's great!" He yelled. "You mean he's actually in love?"

Kuhn reached behind his head and began to scratch in his usual manner. "What do you mean? I just didn't see them… It's not what you think." But, they were right. He really didn't have any desire to flirt with those girls, but he didn't notice it.

At that time, two scantily clad girls walked by the shop. On one hand, he probably shouldn't be hitting on them, especially since he was going to see Pi that evening, but on the other hand, his testosterone was telling him otherwise, and he could prove those two wrong.

Eventually, one side one the battle. He leaned forward on the counter and said smoothly, "Helloo ladies."

Gaspard looked at Kuhn with a slightly befuddled look on his face. Silabus just smiled and rubbed the top of Gaspard's head.

-----

Tomonari took the M2D off his head after ending his session on the world. He'd ended up leveling up for a few hours, nothing particularly interesting had happened on the world that day. He turned his head and looked at the clock. He had just enough time to get ready and over to the train station and beat Pi to the restaurant. He didn't want to be late and look foolish.

Once again, he stopped in front of the mirror, checking to see if the M2D had screwed up his hair. Deciding it was good enough; he grabbed a coat and put it on, snatched his wallet and exited his house.

The sun was starting to set, and even though it was still out the air was still frigid. Tomonari could see his breath, and his nose was feeling very cold. He made his way to the train station, watching his breath curl in the cold air as he walked along. He turned into the train station and bought his ticket.

Tomonari noticed as he sat waiting for the train to arrive that his heart was beating like mad again. He couldn't blame it; his mind was racing as well. _I'm actually going to meet her._ He couldn't explain the feeling. It was just the pure rush of knowing that someone you've talked to, and spent time with, but never truly seen was going to _actually_ be in your presence. The closest word he could find to it was giddy.

The train pulled in, and he entered the compartment. It was fairly empty because the work rush would be over already, and it was a Saturday so most people who had somewhere to go were already there. He found a seat quickly and sat down.

The train lurched forward, and slowly gained speed, until it was at a constant pace, speeding along the countryside.

Tomonari watched as the sun sank in the sky, his brain not focusing on anything, too distracted by the sheer excitement he was feeling. He had his hands in his pocket, one clutched around the piece of paper with directions to the place, and the other around his cell phone, unconsciously tracing each of the numbers to pass the time.

He was broken out of his trance when he felt the train slow to a stop. He stood up and exited the train, and headed outside.

It'd gotten really dark, really fast, he noticed, and immediately he wished that he'd brought a thicker coat. He checked his cell phone for the time, incase the train had been late, or if he'd taken longer to walk to the train station then normal.

He had about 15 minutes to find the restaurant.

"_Shit!_" he swore and took the piece of paper with the instruction on them out of his pocket. He should have checked the train schedule. _Stupid, stupid!_ He ran around, searching for street signs, and eventually looking for the restaurant. He finally saw the restaurant, the words painted in the window.

He ran inside, feeling somewhat light-headed from the adrenaline pulse he felt again. He'd only taken seven minutes to find the place, so he should still be able to beat her. After all, she lives much farther away, and drove. But, what if he'd gotten the wrong place, or the wrong time? Had she really said to meet today, and not the day after? What if he didn't have enough money to pay for the food and the ticket… was she expecting him to pay for the entire thing? And what if he couldn't recognize her?

Hesitantly, he reached forward and grabbed the door handle, slowly pulling the door open.

It was pleasantly warmer inside, he could sense his fingers get their feeling back

The woman behind the counter said, "How many?" asking about the number of people at his table.

"I'm waiting for someone…" Tomonari replied. The woman behind the counter nodded, and he sat down on the bench in the waiting area, near a woman dressed in business-like attire. He pulled out his cell phone and started to play around with it.

"Uh… Tomonari?"

"Eh?" He said turning his head over to the woman next to him. It registered after a second that a complete stranger had just called him by his first name. His eyes widened to an almost hilarious extent when he shouted, "P-Pi?"

The woman next to him brought the palm of her hand to her face and the woman behind the counter stared at him. "Sir, we don't serve that, and please wait to be seated before ordering."

"Yeah, that's you." Said the woman into her hand. She got up and walked to the counter and said something to the other woman, who picked up two menus and walked further into the restaurant. The first one looked back at him and said, "Are you coming?" Tomonari stuffed his phone into his pocket and followed her into there.

They were seated in a booth. Tomonari was grinning like a maniac, laughing quietly to himself, perhaps subconsciously trying to brush off that he'd cried out "Pi" in the middle of a restaurant.

"You really are Kuhn…" she said finally. "Nice first impression."

"Sorry, I didn't recognize you." He explained. She looked almost nothing like her PC. In contrast, she was wearing a very conservative suit, but still had a low neck that dipped to her cleavage, which was Tomonari's point of interest. Speaking of them, he noticed that compared to Pi her breasts were fairly small, but big enough to keep him pleased. Real life was a lot better than a bunch of polygon. He vaguely remembered calling himself a pervert internally.

Probably the most noticeable difference was her hair. It was dark, incredibly short compared to Pi's, and even short compared to most people. The hair reached below her jaw just slightly, and most of it was tied back into a neat little ponytail. The only thing similar to her character was that her face was vaguely reminiscent of it, and the pair of glasses perched on her nose.

"I suppose that's understandable, but you still didn't need to yell."

An idea popped into Tomonari's head. "We could have avoided that if you'd just given me your name. Then I wouldn't be shouting out a random number whenever I see you." He said, trying to act casual.

"Nice try." She said equally as calm, and changed the focus. "You took a while."

"Me?" He chuckled. "I got here 8 minutes early. It's not my fault the train wasn't any faster."

She smirked. "And I drove, which takes longer and I live a lot longer away. I still manage to get her 30 minutes earlier than you."

"Yeah well…" He brought up his hand and began to ruffle his hair.

"Oh." She said.

"What?"

"So you actually do that."

"…Do what?"

She mimicked him and brought her hand up to her neck. "The hair thing. You do it a lot in the game."

"Just because our characters don't look like us doesn't mean they act like us."

"That's not necessarily true. Yata is entirely different offline than online."

"Heh, yeah…" he said forcing a smile. He didn't really want her to be talking about Yata. She seemed to close to him and it annoyed Tomonari. "Where did you find out about this place?" He asked, changing the topic.

"I read about it on a website. I don't have enough time to make food like this at my house, so I go out to eat a lot. I'm not going to eat fast food every night."

He chuckled quietly. "I don't go out to eat much, only on special occasions." _And this is one of them_.

A waiter came up to them at that moment. "May I have your order, or do you need a little more time?" He asked politely.

Tomonari hadn't actually opened the menu yet, so he was going to ask for more time, when Pi interrupted him.

"We'll both have the Soba with beef," She said pleasantly "and that iced tea." She pointed at the menu in her hand. Quickly, she pulled the menu from Tomonari's hands and gave it to the waiter, who left.

"Piii." He groaned.

"It's really weird having you call me by my PC name." She commented, sounding bored.

"Why did you just order for me?" He groaned. "Then why don't you tell me your name?" He added, hoping it'd work.

"Because you just said that you don't go out often, therefore you wouldn't know what to order." She said plainly. "And no."

He huffed at the second comment, deciding that continuing to ask her would get him nowhere. "How do you know that I'm not a vegetarian or allergic to wheat or something?"

"Are you?"

"No."

"That's how." She said adjusting her glasses.

"And you do that." He said grinning.

"Hm?"

He mocked her mimicry and brought his hands to his nose and acted like he was moving imaginary glasses.

She didn't look very amused. Tomonari quickly straightened up and laughed awkwardly. Now that he thought about it she didn't look so different from her PC. Sure, she didn't look like it, but the way she moved and her facial expression were exactly like her. "Sorry." He said, trying to act more serious.

"You know you aren't too different from what I expected." She said.

"Is that a good thing?"

She shrugged in reply. "Oh." Their food had arrived.

Tomonari stared at what had been placed in front of him. He'd never had something this fancy before; he usually had instant food, or things that was easily cooked. He remembered eating something similar to this a long time ago when he was just a kid, and hating it. He hesitantly poked around at the soba.

"You ordered it, why don't you eat it?" She said, with some of it already in her mouth.

"You ordered it!" He replied angrily, stirring the bowl of food in front of him. The meat bobbed in and out of the noodles. After a few seconds he picked part of it up and hesitantly put it on his mouth. After chewing it slowly he said,"Hey this is pretty good." And swallowed it while getting another bite.

"I told you." She said, matter-of-factly. She ate slightly bent over, giving a clear view of where Tomonari's real attention was due to her low shirt.

She straightened up and scoffed, but he could still se a slight smirk on her face. "What are you looking at?"

Tomonari realized he had a grin plastered on his face and quickly tried to make it blank. "You know that the dress code was casual, right?"

"This is casual." She explained, bending down again.

Kuhn, indistinctly wondered what her formal attire was as she exposed her cleavage again.

"That's the same look you give my PC." She said, sounding like it was said to herself.

Kuhn felt himself redden and he hit himself inwardly on the head. "Well, you did make your character look like that. If you didn't want people to stare at you, there was the option of you making a fully clothed character." He said, keeping his tone light. "Now, I'm not complaining."

"It's not my fault. I didn't make it." She said. "My brother did."

"Oh." He said. Then he added, "Ew."

She mumbled something and continued to eat her food.

"Why did you decide to keep it? Seeing how you don't like looking like that…"

She continued to keep her concentration on her food. "He's dead. I thought it'd be respectful to keep something he gave me."

He felt suddenly like an idiot, yet again, there was another conversation that wasn't going anywhere good. He knew the feeling as well, that was the same reason he continued to use Mai Minase as his password. "Yeah, I understand." He agreed with her.

"So, what do you do in your free time?" She said.

"Me? Well I'm not actually that interesting. I mostly play The World." He laughed weakly. "I started playing because I really liked the old version, and missed out on a lot of the interesting things that happened." He'd been in a coma for a year, and his parents didn't want him playing the game much after he got out of it. "I was hoping I'd get into the spotlight in this revision. And seeing how I'm working alongside with Haseo, and I have an avatar…" He said grinning.

"Yeah. It's nice having power." She said. "Oh God, I sound like Haseo."

Tomonari snorted. "Well, it's true."

She took a sip of her drink. "It's just… nice to be able to be in control of things you know? Instead of just standing around hoping someone else will fix it. It makes you feel like you're somebody."

"Why did you join the world?"

"My brother sent me that character a little before he died."

Great. He'd touched that subject again. "Oh."

There was an awkward silence as they continued of their food, reaching the bottoms of their bowls. "So, sorry for asking, but who's paying the bill?"

She finished the last bite of the bowl and raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you telling me to pay for it?"

"No! Not at all! I was just wondering if I'd have to use my credit card or if I could get by with cash…"

"Well, I _drove_ all the way here and waited for you."

"And I kind of can't pay for all of this with cash if I want to buy a ticket home." He admitted. "I don't like using my credit card too often…" He once got into debt from using it a long time ago, and avoided it all together.

Right on cue the waiter came by with the bill. Kuhn looked at it and noticed that he had barely enough money to pay for it and the tip "I suppose we can split it, and I'll-"

"No. You're paying for the whole thing." She said.

Kuhn laughed, but was really irked. Why did she get to decide this? She could pay for her half. "What? C'mon I can't-"

"Doesn't a man treat a lady?" Tomonari didn't find this a good excuse. "And in return," She added quietly, "I'll give you a ride home."

Tomonari thought for a second, wondering if it was an equal exchange. Realizing it was stupid to turn down getting a ride home from Pi, he agreed and paid the bill.

They exited the restaurant, and it was pitch black outside, and still freezing. Tomonari really wished that he'd brought his winter jacket.

"That was really good. I'm glad you suggested it." He said, his breath curling, visible under the lights. "So, where's your car?" He asked watching her walk. He noticed that she was a few inches shorter than him, reaching just above his shoulder, and strutted just as stiff as her character.

She indicated ahead of her. "Just a block down."

Tomonari began to think about the evening. He'd truly enjoyed himself. It didn't go anything like he had planned, but he didn't mind. He'd gotten to meet Pi in real life, and she was a pleasure to be around. It was an almost nostalgic feeling being around her, reminding him of something a long time ago, but he couldn't quite remember it.

"Here it is." She said, pointing to a car, a really nice looking car.

He chuckled looking at it. It was really expensive looking, and he felt like he shouldn't touch it for the chance that he might smudge it.

"Well, get in." She said while entering the driver's side. He followed her into the car, which was pleasantly warmer and smelled a little bid odd.

"Can I see your phone?" He asked, planning something.

"Why?" She said, starting the car.

"I need to call someone."

The car slowly moved through the town. "Who?"

Tomonari realized he didn't plan this out too well. "That's irrelevant."

"Then use your own phone." She said not paying attention. "I'm not stupid, I saw you with it earlier, Tomonari." Pi said with her eyebrows raised.

"Come on… Why can't I know you're name since you know mine? Tell me." He pleaded, leaning over to her.

She shoved her hand into his face and pushed him back. "I'm not going to tell you." She said pleasantly.

"Well, at least what it starts with, or how many syllables." He began to bargain.

"Where do you live?" She said, calmly changing the subject.

He told her, but was still annoyed that he doesn't know her name, even though they had met and he'd gone out to dinner with her. '_Or… was it called a date?_' he thought.

A date. Was that what it was called? But dates has to do with boyfriends and girlfriends. And boyfriends and girlfriends were in…

Love. He'd never actually used that word whenever he thought about her for some reason. He knew that he liked her, and wanted to be around her, but always avoided the word "love". He used other words like affection and fondness when he talked about her in his head.

He remembered earlier to when he was in The World, and how Silabus and Gaspard acted towards him. Is that really how one acts when they're in… love? If it was so obvious, perhaps it was real. But, no they were just co-workers in project G.U.. Just friends.

'_Is that really true, _just _friends?'_ he asked himself. He was friends with Silabus, and he never had the desire to meet him. And he didn't think about him almost all of the time.

He watched the street lights pass the car as they continued to drive on. He looked over at Pi and she was intently watching the road. Tomonari felt that odd nostalgic feeling again, and this time he remembered where it came from.

He had felt the same way around Mai years ago. '_And… we were boyfriend and girlfriend, weren't we?'_ It was, that feeling of happiness, that he wouldn't want to be anywhere else or with anyone else. He continued to stare at her, lost in thought. '_So, it's really love? Not just… friendship, or perversion over her body._' He was trying to reason with himself. He continued the same basic train of thought over and over, asking himself the same question.

The next thing he remembered was someone shaking him.

"Uwa…?" he said groggily. He realized that he'd fallen asleep in the car. "Hrrngh." He groaned. "Where 'err we?"

"Kanazawa." Said Pi. "I don't really know what it's like around here... where's your house?"

"Mreh?" He sat up and looked around. She was by where he worked, and he knew how to get home. He pointed to his left and said, "Drive over there 'bit." She followed his instructions. "Turn here." He said, still tired. "And, thassit." He said, indicating his apartment.

She parked the car right outside of the building, and helped Tomonari out of the car. He was still tipsy due to the lack of sleep, and stumbled around outside of the car onto the ground.

"See, this is why I ordered us iced tea, hoping you wouldn't get drunk." She said picking him up.

"S'ry." He mumbled. "Got up early t'day, 'm tired." He rummaged through his pocket and grabbed his key, opening the door. She escorted him to the elevator, and they eventually made it to his apartment.

He stood all the way up, swaying a bit and turned on the lights.

"I…" she began. "I had a good time tonight." She said to him, while they were still in the doorway.

Without even thinking (perhaps because that he was still half asleep) Tomonari pulled her into a hug. She stood there for a second and then wrapped her arms around his back too. "I did too." He said beside her ear.

"Reiko Saeki." She told him.

"Hm?"

"That's my name. Reiko Saeki." She said again.

Tomonari felt himself wake up. "Oh!" He said eagerly. He pulled her closer to him and lifted her into the air a bit. She made a surprised noise when she was still hanging. "Rei-ko." He breathed, and set her down.

They remained like that for a minute when Reiko said, "Er… I should be going now, I don't want to be completely out of it at work tomorrow."

"Oh, right!" he said, and quickly withdrew his arms.

"Goodbye!" She said, smiling and waving. Tomonari noticed that her face was slightly flushed, as she walked down the hallway, her heels clicking with each step.

Once she was out of sight he said, "Yeah. I guess… Gaspard was right. Kuhn's in love."

-

There'll be more.


	6. Still

Reminisce spoilers ahead kiddies, and this'll make a lot more sense if you've watched Liminality. ONWARD

-

Tomonari stared at his creation on the table, thinking to himself that he should really learn how to cook someday. He'd tried to make something from an ancient cookbook, and instead of the nice picture on the page, his was lopsided, discolored and generally unappealing.

"How do you screw up rice?" he asked himself. He jammed the food into a lunchbox, despite how unappealing it looked, and probably tasted. If this was any other day he would have thrown it in the trash and gotten some fast food instead, but today was special. He was meeting _her_, and that meant that he had to cook food, even though he was god awful at it. She'd get mad or something if he decided to get lazy and just order something.

Tomonari finished packing the lunch, and began to get ready to head out. Remembering how cold it was the other day, he grabbed a heavier coat from the closet, and put on boots this time. He also brought carnations, he wanted to give her a gift as well, and what better gift than flowers?

Exiting his apartment, he silently cursed the fact that he had to eat outside today. '_Although, you did bring this upon yourself.'_ He reminded himself.

"Yeah, yeah." Tomonari said aloud. He tucked his lunch underneath his coat to keep it from the cold air. The overcast sky above was slowly clearing up as he made his way to the meeting place. The lunch felt pleasant against the hand holding it under his coat, while the other one was exposed. He turned the corner and made it to their meeting place. He opened the gate and searched around.

"Found you." He said playfully when he saw the tree she was next to. He ran over and sat down in front of her. "I betchya didn't expect me to be here so early."

Most people would find it odd to meet someone in a graveyard, unless it was to mourn for a common relative or friend. However lately Tomonari has always met this girl in a graveyard, because she resided there.

"I know what you're thinking, it's a bit cold today for me to be visiting." He said rubbing the top of the gravestone. It read "Mai Minase".

"But, there was something I had to talk to you about." He said, still grinning as if she were actually there in front of him. He sat down in front of the head stone and took the lunch out from under his coat. "I even made lunch, like I promised!"

He opened up the lunch box and took out some chopsticks. It still looked just as unappealing as it did when he first made at, and he could see the steam as he took off the cover of the box. "Don't make fun of me." He said laughing. "You know that I'm an awful cook."

"Yeah I know. I should probably learn to cook. I'm going to get fat from eating all of that fast food." He stuck the food into his mouth, and it indeed did taste as bad as it looked.

"Ugh." He groaned after swallowing it. "Anyways, there was something I wanted to talk to you about, as I said earlier."

"I remember how much you hated me," He began. "Well, I don't think hated is the word seeing how you were my first kiss." The man began to chuckle to himself. "Okay, sorry. Anyways, I know you thought that I was immature, and you were the one who broke up with me. But I still like to think of us as together… well I wouldn't say together is the word, but you know what I mean?" He said, eating another mouthful. "No you don't." He decided.

"You know, ever since you broke up with me, and even more since you died… I've been looking for someone to fix the crack in my heart. Now, by no means replace you." He said reassuringly. "Nothing could replace you. But… something to new to stand by you, to be your equal but not substitute you?"

He took another bite and laughed. "I'm not making any sense am I? Well, I've never really been awarded for my coherency."

"Well. I've searched everywhere. Sometimes in real life, but mostly online. You remember that I was a huge online junkie. The World, you remember right? Of course you do, seeing how I was in a coma from the first revision, I'm glad that you worked with that man to help me and the others." He said warmly.

He took another bite. "I'm really getting off topic today, aren't I? Well, I thought I should get you up to date." The gravestone stood just as still as it was earlier. "Well, yeah. Online dating you might call it, but I searched for a girlfriend on The World. Most of them were the norm. You know, like those boring girls at school that had boyfriends, but no real personality, right?"

He continued to eat the food, even though it tasted awful. It was bitter, yet addicting at the same time. "Then, I met… well I wouldn't say met. I was forced into this organization which this woman was part of. She reminds me of you. Always calling me out, you know. Although, she is a lot meaner than you."

The sky was clearing up slowly, getting warmer as the day wore on. "But, I still liked her. A lot. Even though she hit me, called me names, insulted me, _hit me_…" He added for emphasis. " I still wanted to be with her. Not to mention the nice rack on her PC."

"Shush. You should know how much of a pervert I am." He added, shooting the gravestone a glance.

"I asked her for her phone number, and she gave it to me. She's a lot nicer offline, and less uptight."

He continued to eat. "She even invited me on a date." It registered at that moment, that it wasn't him who invited her. It was the other way around. He had just let slip that he'd want to see her in real life. "_She_ invited _me_ on a date." He repeated that to making sure it was real.

"I think…" He started, his mind still comprehending the night before. "That I love her. Not the perverted love… no but like the real kind. It's that feeling you get when you couldn't be happier with anyone else… right?" He asked the gravestone.

"But, I don't know if she loves me. I sound like an idiot, don't I?" He laughed, taking another bite of his lunch, which was getting cold. "I sound like one of those people who only think about love, and are desperate for it."

"I suppose you could call me desperate, seeing how I have 1000 phone numbers of girls on my cell phone." He laughed, scratching the back of his head. "It sounds like such a cheesy word, doesn't it. 'Love.' Every time I hear it, the conversation automatically gets awkward unless they're talking about something inanimate, or if they don't really mean 'love'."

"She's really hard to read, Mai. I can never guess what she's going to say next, or how she's going to react. Sometimes she makes me think that she'd never talk to me again, and other times, she seems to like me. I mean, if someone asks you on a date, then they like you, right?"

He was starting to get warm; the sun was beating down on his dark coat. _'Man, I can never tell the weather, can I?'_ he thought, pulling the coat down so it hung on his elbows.

"She was one of those people that when you have physical contact with them, it leaves this odd feeling. Yesterday I hugged her, and I didn't want to let go. I kind of feel bad though, I kept her late and she has work today."

"Oh, I haven't told you her name yet. It's Reiko Saeki. Now don't you be haunting her or anything. I can't see you getting jealous, seeing as you say that we shouldn't be together." He said, pointing his chopsticks at the gravestone. "But… I think that she and I could work something out."

"Well, that's what I wanted to tell you about." He said, packing up his lunch. "I hope you understand. I know you don't care really, but I thought it might be nice to tell you." He stood up with the coat still at his elbows, and positioned the flowers at the base of the headstone. "I'm going to change my password today. I just wanted to get your permission." He left the graveyard, and while standing outside of the gates he looked back at her gravestone, which was still as ever. "And don't worry!" He called out. "I'll never forget you."

-

Tomonari returned to his apartment, hung up his coat and made his way to the computer. He accessed the normal World home page, but before signing in, he kept true to his word.

**Current Password:**

Mai Minase 

**New Password:**

Reiko Saeki 

He clicked the 'change password' button, and the deed was done. He was no longer Kuhn because of Mai, but now Reiko was part of his being as well, and he couldn't be Kuhn without her.

He lifted his M2D, and entered The World once more.

The lights circled around him, as he entered Mac Anu donned in his normal outfit, and his long blue hair reaching his waist. He checked the menu seeing if anyone interesting was on. Pi read as online, and immediately invited her.

After a long while of waiting, a message popped up "_Member "Pi" could not be reached, please try again._" He followed the instructions, and received the same message.

"That's weird. Is she away from the keyboard or something?" Said wondering what was wrong. He continued into the root town wandering around. It felt somewhat eerie; she was almost never away from the keyboard, she was either online or offline.

Maybe Haseo knew about it. It read that he was busy, so Kuhn couldn't reach him that way. "Weird." He said. Maybe Yata would know about this, the man always seemed to know whatever was going on in the world, and since he worked in close proximity with Pi, he should know where she is. He warped over to the Mercenary district, and made his way to the NPC there, which let him into the guild.

"Nero!" He heard, seeing the Wise Grunty standing there as usual. Kuhn didn't pay it any attention, and its glasses followed him as he continued up the stairs into the Serpent of Lore.

Inside, he saw Yata standing in front of the screens that he used to watch the activities of The World. Kuhn's footsteps made his presence known. The Macarabe Dancer turned his head and saw the gunner slowly make his way towards the stairs.

Once he stopped, Yata stared at him silently. "Ah. Kuhn." He said finally.

"Yeah, I know, I know. It's weird for me to come in here and all, and I shouldn't be bothering you with little things like this." He said. "I'm sorry and all, but do you know where Pi is? She's online, but I can't contact her."

The man paused, studying Kuhn. "I was expecting you."

Kuhn's face contorted into something between confusion and apprehension. Expecting him? Why would he be expecting Kuhn to come to him when he normally avoided the place?

"You remember, when you, Endrance and Haseo had to enter Moon Tree?" The man said, his expression hidden by the heavy shadows cast from the screens. "Haseo went with Pi and Atoli to meet him and terminate his account once and for all."

Kuhn didn't like at all where this conversation was going. Why would he be telling him this instead of just saying he didn't know where Pi was?

"They found Sakaki, but he somehow obtained a seed of AIDA."

Kuhn felt as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water on him. "What?" He said. "No. No. Sakaki couldn't have gotten her."

"No." Confirmed Yata. "Haseo and the rest were able to defeat Sakaki easily."

Kuhn was still confused, but slightly relieved. _Why_ was he telling Kuhn this, if Sakaki didn't kill her, or mess with her PC or anything. "That's good. But why...?"

"Afterwards they were joined by someone else. Ovan. You remember the man, right?"

Kuhn remembered a tall man with a scarf, a sealed arm and orange sunglasses. "Yeah, I remember him. You and Haseo know him somehow, and he helped with finding Atoli, right?"

"Yes, that's the one."

"What about him?"

"After they defeated Sakaki, Ovan came to meet them, and he showed Haseo what was concealed in his left arm."

"The sealed up one? What was it?"

The man paused, and said after what felt like an eternity. "Pure AIDA." After another second of silence the man continued. "I know that you and Pi are close, and it would be unfair not to tell you."

Kuhn wasn't flustered about the fact that somehow Yata seemed to know that he and Pi were close, but more in a panic because of the grimness in his tone. "Tell me what?" He said fearfully.

"Ovan attacked Atoli and Pi." He said.

"That man… attacked those two?" He couldn't believe it. It wasn't that he knew the man well enough to know that he wouldn't attack them, but he didn't want to accept the fact that those girls could be infected by AIDA, or comatose. "Don't say things like that!" He yelled out. "They're fine, that's not funny!"

He ripped the M2D off his head and pulled out his cell phone. He hastily called Pi. There was no answer, but he got the voice mail.

"Reiko! Are you there? Please, pick up. Are you okay…? Yata said... please! Pick up!" He couldn't put together a coherent sentence and could feel his voice begin to crack. He called again, but still couldn't reach her. "HEY!" He screamed into the phone. "PICK UP! COME ON, PLEASE!" Still no answer. He could feel himself petrified as he listened to her voice asking him to leave a message for the third time. _'No, no, no, no, no.'_

He threw the M2D on his face and returned to the Serpent of Lore. From Yata's face he realized that his mic probably picked up what he was yelling. He made a pathetic sort of whimpering noise, looking at the man.

"Pi is currently comatose. Reiko Saeki, the human behind her player has been found and is hospitalized." There was a hint of emotion on his face, something resembling pity.

Kuhn could feel his throat tighten and his eyes sting. He stood there still for a minute, feeling numb. "What hospital?" He tried to keep his voice as steady as he could, but it was still shaking, and he couldn't talk any louder than a whisper.

Yata told him the hospital and he wrote it down. "Thank you." He said dully and logged out from The World.

Tomonari took the M2D off his head and set it on his desk. Looking at the screen that asked him for his password made him loose all the composure he had when he was talking to Yata. The man fell apart on his desk, letting go of the held back sobbing.

"No." He said every time he had enough control over himself to form a word. "_No._" It couldn't be true. She was an epitaph user, Haseo was there, Ovan wasn't the type to be evil. There was no way that she was a lost one.

He was shaking hard, feeling his eyes getting puffy. "_Fuck... No_." He cursed into his arms. He wasn't cogent enough to do anything except deny everything the leader of G.U. had said, even though he knew that even if he didn't accept reality it wouldn't stop it from being true. Was it his fault? What if he hadn't kept her up late last night, would she have been able to avoid it?

After half an hour of just sobbing, he lifted his head. At that moment, Tomonari finally got himself to think clearly enough to make a decision. He began to gather clothing, and took out a suitcase.

-

Tomonari found himself at the train station for the second time in two days, where he normally rode it once or twice a year. He'd taken care of all that was vital, he'd gotten hotel reservations and made sure he had the right hospital. He'd packed all he needed, and gotten off from work for the week. All he had to do was go see her.

He knew that visiting Reiko couldn't help her, but he had to do it. If he really loved her, he wouldn't just say home and hope for the best. No, he had to see her.

Though he was no longer flat out crying, he felt dull. He only concentrated on when the train was coming to keep himself from breaking down in public. His eyes felt heavy, as if he had just woken up, and he could feel the tears reach his eyes from time to time, but held them back.

The train finally came. Tomonari quietly stood up and walked towards the platform.

As he boarded the train with his single suitcase, he looked out the window. He noticed he could see the graveyard from where he was. He remembered that it was a mirror image of before. This time, however, instead of he being the one in the coma, it was the one he loved. He looked at the graveyard, closed his eyes and said, "…I guess… I know how you feel now, Mai."

-

lolmoar coming.


	7. Nourishment

A/N: Long authors note is loooong.

Real A/N: Yes. There is a timeline. I'll just show the events that correspond with a certain point of the actual game storyline.

Pi doesn't dislike Kuhn anymore --- Sakaki makes Atoli all emo at Moontree --- The date is a night before OVAN GOES ALL LOLAIDA on Pi and Atoli a puts them in comas---now.

I don't remember how long they were in the hospital, and my G.U. games are yet again not available. I'm going to assume for 2ish days... maybe less. And also most of my character information is heavily researched, so don't be thinking "Why does Pi own such a nice car? She doesn't seem the type." Because... I have no idea why either. She just does. :c

And now... ONWARD. KYA HI HO SILVER! ALSO This story is teetering on the edge of M because I use "Fuck" too often and Kuhn's perverted level is over 9000. I'm really trying to keep it a T.. but I may have to change it for safety. Auggh decisions u.u;

-

Tomoari continued to stare at the figure in front of him. Reiko hadn't seemed to change from when he'd arrived a couple hours earlier. The attendants had been very nice in directing him to the room, and he felt that he hadn't seemed grateful enough. Although, maybe they were used to this sort of thing, a hospital isn't exactly the happiest place on earth.

When he'd arrived he started out by talking to her in a similar way he'd talked to Mai earlier that day (Was it really earlier that day? It felt like an eternity ago). First he started acting like he was casually talking to her, telling her how Yata was acting strange and that people were wondering where she was, but it eventually turned to pleading for her to wake up. He continued cycling in and out between each form of conversation until he ran out of things to say.

Since then he'd just been sitting there silently listening to the machine beep steadily every time her heart beat. His brain was mulling over a variety of things, like thinking about clever things to say to her when she woke up, or wondering if this was how Mai had reacted when he was in the hospital. Mostly, he was just thinking about the woman lying in front of him.

_'Maybe I should say something like 'rise and shine'…or is there something Yata normally says that I could incorporate to welcome back? Perhaps 'Welcome… to the REAL world' No, that sounds stupid_.

'_I wonder if Mai tried to think of something to say when I got up… probably not, she's not like that. But did was she thinking of anything similar… like a celebration when I woke up or something…?_

'_I really want Pi- er, Reiko to get better.'_

His mind cycled around like that for a while. He noticed that even though she'd told him her name, he was still calling her Pi in his mind. It was mostly due to habit, he'd been calling her Pi for over half a year, and he'd just learned her name the day before. He corrected himself every time he made that mistake though.

Tomonari moved his hand to her face, and brushed the hair that was hanging in her eyes behind her ear, and sat back to look at her. If it weren't for all of the medical equipment hooked up to her, it'd look like she was just having a long rest after a rough day.

"Excuse me." He heard, and he turned his head towards where the sound originated. "Visiting hours are almost over." Said the nurse in the doorway, almost apologetically.

"Mm." Was all he said in response. Tomonari stood up and left the room, giving Reiko a half-hearted wave in the doorway.

It was still as cold as ever on the streets of Tokyo. He'd actually never visited the place before, and was a bit daunting with the lights flashing, the enormous amount of people, and the noise. He made his way to the hotel reading the signs as they flashed, and his stomach gave a loud growl when he walked near a McDonalds. He could smell it, and his stomach was scolding him for not eating earlier, but he didn't have any money with him, so he just walked to his hotel without any interruptions.

Tomonari noticed, as he stayed awake in his room, that he wasn't really sad anymore. The word sad didn't seem to fit, he just felt numb. He was in Tokyo; visiting someone he'd met online who was comatose. If someone had told him that earlier, he would have looked at them like they were either joking or drunk, but here he was, in a cramped hotel room, watching the clock waiting for morning to come so he could visit his comatose friend.

Morning came sooner than he expected, because the next thing he knew his cell phone alarm was going off. It was still very early, but he set it so he'd be able to get to the hospital as soon as visiting hours started. But at that moment, he'd forgotten where he was for a second, and wondered why he was in such a small room.

"Oh yeah…" He mumbled as he realized where he actually was. The man freed himself from the covers wrapped around him and got dressed for the day. As he pulled the sweater over his head, his stomach gave a groan so powerful he doubled over a little and gripped his stomach.

Taking that as a hint, after getting ready he dashed towards the lobby looking for breakfast. He was thrilled to see they were offering free food, and made a beeline to the basket of baked goods. He shoved two bagels down his throat, before returning to the hospital.

The receptionist directed him to where Reiko was, and he thanked her before pulling up a chair next to her bed. "Hey there, you." He said softly. She was still just as unresponsive, and continued breathing slowly as the machine reported each times her heart beat.

Instead of continuing the one sided conversation, he just sat there watching her quietly, wondering slightly why he was there. It was true that he wanted to be there, but he was wondering if it really did help. All he was doing was watching a vegetable, and the only 'help' it was doing was making him feel better. And if she were to wake up, would she be grateful or think he's a stalker? And why did he get there so early and stay so late?

He remembered that right before he fell asleep the clock read 1:24, and he'd gotten up around 5 hours after that. He remembered that he seemed to not be able to walk a straight line when he was walking to the hospital. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to get there so early; he could feel his eyelids straining to keep open.

Tomonari groaned again, feeling another pang of guilt. He was about to blame her for making him come to Tokyo in the first place, but then he remembered that it might have been his fault. If he hadn't kept her up so late, her reflexes might have been better, and she could have avoided this. But now…

"Dammit." He brought his head down to the palms of his hands. Oddly enough, that position was strangely comfortable, and his eyes felt good when he wasn't trying to keep them open. _"Maybe I'll just stay like this for a second…"_

Someone was shaking his shoulder. "Sir?" He looked up and saw someone dressed in hospital attire. There were actually quite a few like her in the room, but there didn't seem to be any emergency.

"Wass goin' on?" He mumbled.

"We're sorry, but you'll have to leave for a little while." Said the one who shook his shoulder.

"Why?" He asked. Was there something wrong? He looked over to the bed where Reiko was.

He saw that she was sitting up, and more lively then he was. "It's nice to see you awake." She said with an eyebrow raised.

He grinned madly and replied, "I could say the same about you!" Before they could continue the conversation, one of the nurses shooed him out of the room, saying they needed to perform some tests.

"Alright, alright." He said as she closed the door, and he felt a rush of relief. He would have preferred to stay in the room with her, but the feeling of annoyance was insignificant compared to how relieved he was.

"Ah, It must have been because she was an epitaph user." He said to himself. "And that means Atoli will be okay as well." He'd completely forgotten about the younger girl until right then. "Well, then she'll be alright as well." He decided, knowing that she was guarded by Innis, that she'd be awake soon as well. Did Yata even tell him that Atoli was comatose? Tomonari couldn't remember. Well, either way she'd be fine now.

He remembered to back when he used Magus to teach Haseo a lesson in the arena. Pi had gotten mad at him saying that he might have become a lost one. '_Ah, so this is what she was talking about.'_ He thought. "Good thing I had the propagation on my side." He said, laughing.

Actually, he realized he was incredibly lucky to have the propagation on his side. Without having Magus under his control, he couldn't help people, he'd be unaware of most things in the world… and due to it he was forced into Project G.U., where he met Pi.

"Reiko." He said out loud, reminding himself. "It's Reiko. You made such a big deal to learn it, so you better use it."

He watched the closed door, waiting for someone to come out and let him in. He didn't like just waiting around. He wanted to see her; he wanted to talk to her. What was the point of him waiting there for her to wake up if when she did he was rushed out of the room? Wait, how long was she awake; it was obvious she was awake long before the nurse shook his shoulder.

"Way to go, Tomonari." He said to himself. Where was that stupid nurse? He continued to sit in the chair waiting to be allowed back into the room, and he felt himself nodding off again. "You've got to be kidding me." He said, straightening up so deter himself from falling asleep. His eyes were still threatening to close, so he stared at the florescent lights, but they didn't make him any less sleepy.

"Honestly. I couldn't be that tired, could I?" He thought aloud. '_It's probably a mixture of you worrying about her too much, staying up late, and-_' his stomach gave an audible groan, '-_lack of food.'_ Apparently two bagels were not enough to sustain someone for a very long time. He brought a hand up to force his eyelid open, making sure he wouldn't nod off right there.

He heard the door open from Reiko's room, and looked at who left, with his fingers still holding his eyelid open. The nurses were vacating the room, and one of them stopped to look at him. He quickly moved his hand away from his face and looked at the nurse.

"Er… You may go in now." She said slowly, with a slight smile and a raised eyebrow.

Tomonari quickly got up and bowed slightly before sliding into the hospital room. He saw Reiko sitting up looking bored. "Good morning!" He said brightly.

"Is that the best you could come up with?" She replied, with her eyebrows raised. "Honestly, I thought you could do better than that."

He took his chair, which the hospital attendants had moved into the corner while they were doing …whatever they were doing, and he moved it back next to the bed. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking about something witty to say when you got up." He lied.

"Don't lie. I know you well enough to know that you _were_ thinking about that." She said evenly. "But, I suppose you didn't have enough time to think of one, seeing how you were sleeping…" She said, her face serious but her voice letting in a hint of amusement.

He started scratching his temple in a nervous manner. "Was I really asleep that long?"

"For about twenty minutes after I woke up, and you looked pretty comfortable so it was probably longer than that. I've noticed you sleep a lot, maybe it's because you sit in front of the computer too often? I heard that it screws with your sleep cycle."

He chuckled weakly. "Sorry, it's been a bit tiring lately."

"I can imagine. It's a good thing that I told you my name, I wouldn't have wanted you to find out about it this way."

Tomonari laughed quietly again. "Yeah, that would have been the least romantic way to find it out." He cringed internally. '_Stupid! Why did you use the word _romantic?!'

"Why did you come here?"

He tensed up. "Uh, why did I come here?" He said quickly, immediately regretting that he said it so fast, because he could have used the time answering to think of an explanation. "W-well…" he started to say, gesturing wildly. "You were in a coma, I couldn't just sit around, and hope for the best!"

"How did you find out I was in this hospital?" She said, conversationally, despite the fact that Tomonari was acting mortified.

"Mm- …Yata told me." He mumbled, feeling his face getting hot. "I'm not a stalker, I swear!" He insisted.

"I never said that," She looked into his eyes. "You came all the way from Kanazawa just to see me?"

He forced a broad smile. He felt utterly embarrassed, and was trying to cover it up by acting cheerful.

"Thank you." She said before he could reply. "Although I'm surprised," she continued, her voice returning to its normal tone. "I didn't think you'd go this far just to visit an online co-worker. You must have stayed here quite some time to be sleeping, or are you really that tired all the time?"

There was no sense lying, so he admitted, "Yeah… I've been here for a while. I…"_love you_ "...was really worried about you."

"Well, you do know that visiting someone won't make them better, especially since they're unconscious, right?"

He laughed loudly, and brought his hand up to his forehead. Of course it was like Pi- er, Reiko to inject discouraging logic into any situation. "When I was in a coma, it made me feel better knowing that people visited me, even though I couldn't tell at the time. I thought you'd feel the same way." He explained.

"You were-?" She began.

He nodded quickly. "Yeah, but the past is the past, I don't like dwelling on it." He said shortly.

She took the hint that he didn't want to talk any more about it. "Have you been to Tokyo before?"

Tomonari shook his head, grinning. "Nope! First time here." He turned to look at the window. "It's huge, I feel lost all the time." He commented.

Reiko shrugged. "I kind of like it. If you're in such a large city you feel slightly important. And they have great food here, have you tried any of the restaurants? If not I know some good ones that aren't too far from here." She babbled, seemingly enjoying herself.

His stomach gave another groan. She stopped talking immediately and looked over at him. "…Was that you?" she asked.

Tomonari reddened and nodded. "Please don't talk about food." He said weakly.

She started to laugh an honest sounding laugh, not a scoff like she normally used. "So I guess you haven't checked out the restaurants, have you?"

He shook his head.

"Oh, speaking of food…"

"I told you not to mention food." He moaned.

"No, I'm not trying to taunt you. I need to ask you a favor. The nurses said that I'd have to stay here for another day, and there's something that needs to be taken care of at home."

"Hm?"

She grinned apologetically. "Feed my cat, please?"

Tomonari blinked. "Your… cat?"

Reiko nodded. "Yes. It'll be really hungry when I get home otherwise, and I have no one else who would do it for me."

"So… what, I just break through the window or something?"

She reached into the drawer next to her bed, and pulled out some keys. "You can use these." And she thrust them into his hand. "Don't drive around in my car." She told him, almost as if she expected him to do that anyways. "Do you have a pen and pencil?"

"No, but you can write things in my phone." He suggested

She extended her arm towards him. "Give it here." He did so and she started typing on his cell phone's keypad.

"What are you…" he began when she returned his phone.

"That's my address. It's way over there," she pointed, "So you better start walking soon if you want to get there before the sun goes down."

"The sun…? Have I really been here that long?" He looked at the time on his cell phone, and indeed he had been there for hours. "Geez, I was asleep for a really long time!" He exclaimed.

She smiled at him. "Yeah, well… I guess this is goodbye for now?" And as if almost on cue a doctor entered her room.

"I'm sorry, but-" Began the doctor.

"Alright, I'm going." Interrupted Tomonari. He stood up and moved his chair out of the way. Before exiting a thought struck him. "Oh, can I stay there?" He asked Reiko.

"Stay... what?!" She blurted. "Uh, okay." She said, looking bewildered.

Grinning, he turned on his heel and left the room before she could change her mind. "Thank you very much!"

It took him a while to get his luggage from his room and drag it across Tokyo, but eventually he made it to Reiko's house. He checked his phone to see if it was the right address, and sure enough it was. He inserted the key into the lock, and slowly opened the door, half expecting an alarm to go off.

Instead he was greeted by something furry thing scratching his leg. "Ow!" he looked down at the cat. "Hello to you too!" He said angrily, and shut the door behind him.

The cat continued to watch him warily as he explored the house. The door entered into a living room, complete with a large television, a couch and a number of chairs. "Oh wow, this place is nice." It was over twice the size of his apartment, and was incredibly spacious. He wandered aimlessly looking for the kitchen, as the cat tailed behind him, almost like an angry parent.

Once he got to the kitchen he turned around and looked at the animal. It opened its mouth and hissed loudly at him. "Oh quiet you, I'm going to give you food." He told it and started searching through the cupboards. He found a can of cat food and emptied it into a bowl, which he set near the refrigerator.

The cat's personality did a 180, as it ate hungrily out of the bowl, and once it finished it began to rub against Tomonari's legs lovingly. "Stupid cat." He said, and started to search through Reiko's cupboards for something he could eat.

"Aha." He said quietly and pulled out a box of cereal. It wasn't exactly fine cuisine, but it was free food, and that was good enough for him. He thought for a second that he should feel guilty for taking her food, but he shrugged it off and decided he'd pay her back eventually.

After succeeding in emptying the entire box, he continued his tour of the house. He found the bathroom, that'd be useful, a closet, a room with just a washing machine and dryer, and he finally found Reiko's room. "Oho." He said slyly peering into the room. It was all that he could do to keep himself from exploring that room any more. "No, you just raided her cupboards, don't be a pervert." Tomonari told himself, and forced himself to leave that area, and return to the living room.

He sat on the couch, turned on the television and started to get settled. He couldn't believe his luck; he'd actually gotten to stay over at Reiko's home. He flipped the channels until he found a station with something tolerable, and he sunk into the couch.

After an hour of watching mindless television, he turned it off and stood up. "Eh, one peek won't hurt." He told himself and walked towards Reiko's room.

-

Sorry for the late update, I'll try to get the next one quicker.


	8. Contact

Both theater and theatre are correct spellings; I just use the second one (It's the British way of spelling it)

-

Tomonari woke up with something fuzzy on his face. In a panic he jolted up and swatted at it before realizing it was the cat, but it was too late. The feline extended its claws into his face and left marks as it fell off.

"STUPID CAT!" He yelled as the animal spat at him. He had half a mind to kick it, but decided against it seeing how it was Reiko's. "Well?" he asked it, for it was staring at him expectantly. It mewed loudly in response.

"What is it, food?" He asked it. "Do you honestly think that you're going to get something to eat after you did this?" He gingerly touched the lines on his face, and could feel that they were bleeding slightly.

It continued to stare at him.

"Yeah, well, you're lucky that you're Reiko's cat." He grumbled and walked to the kitchen. "Otherwise I'd throw you out right now." It meowed at him in defiance as he threw the food down into the dish. Even after it had been fed it still seemed to glower at him angrily in the halls. Or, the cat equivalent of a glower, he wasn't quite sure if cat's had the same emotions that humans had. Some humans certainly had the qualities of a cat; vindictive, spiteful and had a set of claws.

While he was pondering that he realized that Reiko matched that description. Upon this insight his brain immediately created an image of Reiko wearing nothing but cat ears and a tail.

"BAD BRAIN, BAD!" he scolded himself, causing the cat to jump slightly. Since no one was around, other than the cat, to judge him, this time he did bang his head against the wall, in an attempt to rid his mind of such images.

It didn't work, of course, but it was a valiant attempt, and caused him not only to be scratched up by the cat, but also to have a large headache. "Perhaps that wasn't such a good idea," He told himself rubbing his head.

But thinking about her reminded him that she was returning that day.

'_Hm. So, she's coming back. I wonder what she'll do…'_ he asked himself. '_I don't think she'll be too mad at me seeing how she did let me into her house, and I did feed her cat just like she asked. There's no reason for her to be mad at me, unless there was something that he'd done here…' _

"Oh, crap." He'd forgotten about that. She'd probably be the one who would notice any tiny detail, and the one place that he did rummage through would be the most noticeable. He started laughing insanely out of fear from Reiko, not from something funny.

"Oh God, she's going to kill me," he laughed to himself. "Maybe I should leave right now." He said, though he knew that he wasn't going to do that. Perhaps he could explain to her.

That thought made him laugh out loud. He could imagine the pain already. Like hell she was going to brush off that he'd gone through her drawers. The best plan that he could come up with was distracting her with something else. '_But what…?_'

It would look suspicious if he constantly kept her from her room, so he'd have to distract her away from being in her room too long. Perhaps, he could take her out to somewhere? Maybe a movie, that was in his price range (It was really expensive when she made him pay for dinner the other night, he couldn't afford it again in such rapid succession).

"Yeah, a movie," he decided. Tomonari found the computer in her house and started to browse around to see what was showing at the time. There was an action movie… no; she wouldn't be into that sort of stuff. A comedy? She might like that, she could be the type to want to let loose at a movie. He saw that there was also a really well rated romance out at the moment. "That's the one."

He checked the times, and planned out which one he'd go to depending on when she came home. Now instead of the gripping fear he felt minutes ago was replaced with excitement. He couldn't wait for Reiko to get home now.

Since he had no idea when she was coming home, he passed the time by watching some more television. It was all very mind-numbing; that was why he preferred playing video games. The only interaction he was getting from this was with the cat sitting next to him, but even that was sitting on the opposite edge of the couch glaring at him.

"Oh?" He said as the cat stood up suddenly. He listened and he could hear that someone was fumbling with keys at the door.

"Oho!" He vaulted over the couch and walked to the door so when she opened it he'd be the first thing she saw. He listened as she continued to shuffle around with the keys, keeping his stupid pose at the door. Finally she turned the doorknob and opened the door. As she pushed the door open, she stared at the ground.

"Hello Reik-" he began to say, but before he could finish his sentence her knee swiftly made contact in between his legs.

"Ah!" she cried out, taking a step back from the man.

He, however, yelled in a tone that was many octaves above his normal voice. He quickly turned around and pressed his back against the wall, before sliding to the ground, cursing under his breath.

"Oh, you scared me," She said calmly, holding her hand to her chest. "Don't do that again."

He was still curled in a ball on the ground trying to keep tears back, and keep his mind off of the pain, but it wasn't working too well. "Auuuugh." He moaned.

"Well?" She said, closing the door. He was biting into his hand from the pain, while she just stepped over the cringing man.

He finally got himself coherent enough to actually say something, which was, "WHAT THE HELL?"

"What the hell, what?" she asked him, nonchalantly hanging up her coat.

"What was that for?"

She turned around and looked at him, with her arms crossed. "I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't expect someone to be right there. I was startled."

He felt really vulnerable, just lying there in the fetal position. "So you kicked me?"

"Well, you could have been a rapist or something. It was a reflex."

He finally got himself in an upright position, but he still had his knees pressed against his chest. "That's a really strong reflex you have. Do you have any idea how much this hurts?" He said, wincing.

"Sorry. Do you want some ice?" She asked, walking towards the kitchen.

"No, I'm fine." He gasped, trying to stand up. "Jeez!" he grunted, walking slowly back to the couch, and sat down.

"Hello, kitty!" he heard from the kitchen, but it was so childish in the way that she said it that he didn't recognize it was her at first. "Has Tomo-tomo been feeding you?"

"Tomo-tomo?" He called out to her. "What are you, seven?"

She returned with the cat following at her heels. "Quiet you. Cats make you sound stupid because they're just too cute."

"Cute eh?" Replied Tomonari, touching the cuts on his face. "Whatever floats your boat…"

"What?" She held the cat up to his face. "Do know not find this cute?" she asked, and the cat swiped its claws at his face.

"No, I don't." He said flatly. Reiko let the cat on the ground, shrugging. '_I don't think I've felt as much pain in one location as I have here.'_ He thought to himself.

"So, what have you been doing?"

"Uh…" he said, trying to keep himself from looking in the direction of her room. "Mostly watching TV and stuff, and feeding your cat." He said. "Uh, how are you feeling then?"

"Fine. I still feel a bit frail because I didn't eat anything, but I'm sure that will go away after a day of eating right." She craned her neck. "I'll be back." Reiko stood up and walked towards her room, or the kitchen. Tomonari couldn't tell. Shortly, however he heard, "TOMONARI!"

He cringed, waiting for the storm.

"You ate an entire box of cereal?!" she yelled at him, returning with something similar to bread (Tomonari hadn't seen anything like it before). "If you were that hungry I could have told you where a eatery was or something."

"Sorry about that." He rubbed the back of his head. "I just couldn't help myself."

She huffed under her breath and started to eat away from the bread-like substance. "Pig."

"So, uh... what are you going to do now?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. The doctor said I'd be fine to do anything other than extreme sports or anything, but I don't really feel like going out."

'_There goes the movie idea.'_ He thought grimly. What's the point of staying if they couldn't do anything? She probably didn't really want him there. "I see. I guess I should get going soon, seeing how you're going to be fine."

"Uh, you don't have to…" she said quickly. "I mean, what's the point of coming all the way here if you're just going to leave?" She explained, seeming to loose a bit of her composure, but regaining it quickly.

"Oh." He blinked. "Okay then. I'll stay here for a few more days." He let a small grin escape. "So, where do I sleep?"

"Couch." She said, looking unamused.

He started to scratch at his hair quickly and sputtered, "Good, because that's where I thought I was going to sleep." He said laughing nervously. "It was only a joke."

She raised an eyebrow. "Right." She looked over at the television. "So, you've been watching television, right? It's nice, don't you think." She said proudly.

He nodded. "How did you afford such a thing? Also your place is huge… you're doing really well."

She smiled sheepishly. "Yes. Programmers get paid pretty well in these days, and since I'm working for G.U. they pay pretty well to keep it under wraps."

"And I see I'm not getting any of that money?" He said grinning.

"Ask Yata, not me!" She said defensively. "I don't have any say about this." She said acting flustered again.

He waved his hands. "Nah it's okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, no big deal."

"But I can always tell…"

"It's payback for the cereal. They'd probably take my pay from your salary." He explained.

"Alright." She finished the bread. They sat there in silence then, but it didn't feel awkward to Tomonari. Despite this, he still felt the need to break the silence.

"I suppose you're too weak to go out to a movie or anything, right?" He asked, trying to cling to the last bit of hope. Who knows, Reiko had surprised him in the past when he thought she was going to do the exact opposite of what he anticipated.

"I'm never weak," She replied smugly. "You know how strong I am first hand," and her eyes flicked down for a second.

He felt himself flush deeply. "Not funny."

"Sorry. But you're correct. I don't think I'm up to go out just yet. Right now I just want to stay home."

He cocked his head to one side in a manner vaguely reminiscent of a shrug. "Okay then."

"Are you hungry?" She asked him quickly. "I can make you something. Well, kind of. Anyways, follow me," She said standing up and walking towards the kitchen.

"Uh, okay," he said, and trotted after her. Once they got to the kitchen she started rummaging through her refrigerator.

"Now, I'm not very good at cooking," She admitted, and pulled out a bag. "But I believe I have quite a knack for preparing leftovers."

Tomonari looked over her shoulder and saw that most of the contents of her refrigerator was leftovers, or condiments. "You must go out to eat all the time," he commented.

She nodded. "I like to treat myself by going out to eat. It makes that day feel special, even if it isn't," She distributed the contents of the bag evenly onto each plate. "But I'd rather just do this than go out alone," she said, and put a plate in front of Tomonari before sitting next to him with her plate.

Tomonari suddenly felt very awkward being in this close of proximity with Reiko. It wasn't a bad feeling, it's just that he was suddenly very self-conscious; all of a sudden being aware of every movement he did, being careful not to brush up against her and give the wrong impression. "You, er, can sit on the other side of the table if you want, I don't mind," He said meekly.

"What's the point of sitting on opposite ends if we're just going to be talking to each other? It'd be a waste of space," She said, taking a bite of her food.

"Oh, okay," He said, and bit into the mysterious substance in front of him. "What is this by the way?"

"Crab. I had it a little less than a week ago at a diner that's about-"

"I asked what was in it, not it's life story. Or, death story seeing how it's already food," He said, laughing at his own joke. "It's good," He remarked.

"Do you doubt my taste?" She replied.

"I'm getting more confident in it each passing day."

"As am I."

It was too bad that Tomonari's movie idea was a flop. Maybe he could think of another way to spend time with her that she'd be more inclined to do. '_Well, I am staying at her house for a while, it shouldn't be too hard to spend time with her…'_

"Hey."

Tomonari broke out of his thoughts. "Hm?"

"We can still do that movie thing without going out of the house, if you want,"

-

"Since it's such a large television, it's similar to watching something at the movie theatre, right?" She explained after dinner, and led him down to the couch. He was getting more familiar with the house, and it wasn't too hard to navigate anymore. He swung over the back of the couch and landed on the cushion, while Reiko strolled over to the television, and started fiddling with it.

"So what are we watching?" he asked, making himself comfortable.

"You'll see." She said coyly, and walked back from the television, which was working properly, and the opening credits of the movie began. Tomonari still had no idea what it was. "This is one of my favorites." She said as the music came up.

Tomonari was wracking his brain trying to remember if he'd seen this movie, or even if he'd seen commercials for it. When the title came up, he noticed that it was in a different language. To be honest, he had absolutely no interest in the movie at all. His focus of attention was on the woman next to him.

She seemed pretty intent on the movie, watching it as if she'd watched it hundreds of times before, he thought he could see her lips moving along with the characters on the screens, even though it was in a different language. He was completely missing the movie, because he was too busy looking at _her_ rather than the screen.

He… wanted to tell her. He really did. He wanted just to forget about The World, and all of the stupid things going on in it, and just stay with her. Maybe he could, if she'd allow. But that was exactly the problem. _If she'd allow_. She was too difficult to read. The chances of her saying no were equal, or even greater than her saying yes. But, just staying there was a whole different, rather than what he really wanted to tell her.

She started to settle a bit on the couch, as if she was getting tired. She started to lean slightly towards him, pulling her feet onto the couch. He mustered enough courage to do the whole 'stretch' technique, his other hand on his face because he was doing the stupid stretch technique. Fortunately she didn't seem to notice, so apparently he'd managed to pull it off. Instead of putting his arm on her shoulder, he decided to just keep it near the side of her head, because he felt that if he'd actually touched her he'd feel pain similar to when she entered the house earlier that day.

So he just sat there, with his arm hanging there uncomfortably, just watching Reiko. '_I love you. I do. But, I'm afraid… that if I tell you… the feelings wouldn't be shared_.' He thought miserably. Why did love have to be this hard? Why couldn't it be like the movies where the love is always returned, and easily expressed?

He continued to look at her, as she seemed to intently be watching the movie.

'_Is there a chance that'd she'd be okay with this?_' He'd noticed that she seemed to be less uptight than usual. '_I mean, it was she who insisted that I stay… and she was the one who sat next to me. Plus, look at her now!'_ He thought to himself. She was starting to lean slightly towards him. '_But she's probably just tired.'_ He told himself.

The movie continued, but Kuhn had missed out so much of it, he decided it'd be pointless to start watching now. The characters seemed to be wrapping up the plot. '_I have to tell her,_' He thought, watching the characters tie up loose ends in the plot, he supposed. '_Or I'll regret it._'

And then, the credits began to roll. Reiko took the remote from somewhere in the couch and stopped the movie, leaving just a blue screen. "That's one of my favorites," she said, and sat up on the sofa, but still kept her feet on the cushions. She sat there, blissfully unaware of the turmoil going on in his head.

Tomonari looked at her, and took the hand that was resting near where she was sitting and brought it to her face. Then, without thinking, he leaned forward and placed his lips upon hers, and brought them into a kiss. He stayed in that position uncertainly, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, he brought her closer to him, deepening the kiss.

He pulled back, studying her face. "Reiko," he breathed, while she didn't respond. Tomonari couldn't tell her reaction from her expression. She just seemed to be frozen there, just as surprised as he was. He took the hand from her face and placed in on her shoulder, while the other one grasped the opposite arm. She made a surprised noise before he muffled her voice with his lips and began to push her down. He decided to follow his gut (or perhaps a bit lower than that) and see how much he could get from her before she would undoubtedly push him off, call him a pervert and kick him out. But none of that was significant now; he just had to make the best of the situation for as long as he could. She was pinned under him, as he continued to kiss her rougher than he'd intended at first. He was broken out of absolute bliss only when he felt her foot make swift contact with his stomach.

"Oh, God." Was all he said when he found himself on the floor again, clutching his stomach.

"TOMONARI!" he heard her yell. He propped himself upright with his face buried in his palm.

"Shit." He said with a grimace on his face. "Sorry, sorry." He said, feeling a mixture of embarrassment and regret. '_Good job. Way to ruin it.'_

"That hurt." She said, brushing her hair out of her eyes and adjusting her glasses. "Be more careful."

"…What?"

"You hit my head on the arm of the couch, and your knee was digging into my hip. Try not to do that in the future." She said, returning to a normal sitting position.

"Sorry." He said, looking down. Then something clicked in his head, and his eyes to snapped up at Reiko. "Wait, was that…"

He saw a hint of color in her cheeks and she said, "It was fine."

"Really? Then why did you...?"

"Why did I kick you? I told you, it hurt."

"So, you aren't mad at me?" He said, a little confused.

"Of course not. If I was, I would have aimed a little lower than your stomach."

He stood up beaming, and pulled her head to his chest, receiving another noise of surprise from her. "Alright!" he yelled, before she hit him again in the face.

"I told you to be more careful." She scolded, but she had a smirk on her face anyways.

He nodded, rubbing the back of his head. "Let's try this again, okay?" Tomonari initiated another kiss, this time feeling Reiko return it, and he was careful to be gentle.

Pain was worth it sometimes.


End file.
